© eric yu 2001 1 business processes (from steve easterbrook re slides) business process automation...

© Eric Yu 2001 1

Business Processes (from Steve Easterbrook RE slides)

Business Process AutomationLeave existing business processes as they are

Look for opportunities to automate parts of the processCan make an organisation more efficient; has least impact on the business

Business Process ImprovementMake moderate changes to the way the organisation operatesE.g. improve efficiency and/or effectiveness of existing process

Techniques: Duration analysis; activity-based costing; benchmarking

Business Process ReengineeringFundamental change to the way the organisation operatesTechniques:

Outcome analysis - focus on the real outcome from the customer’s perspectiveTechnology analysis - look for opportunities to exploit new technologyActivity elimination - consider each activity in turn as a candidate for elimination

© Eric Yu 2001 5

Agent Oriented Software Agent Oriented Software DevelopmentDevelopment

Referenceshttp://www.cs.toronto.edu/km/istarhttp://www.cs.toronto.edu/km/OME

http://www.fis.utoronto.ca/~yu

http://www.cs.toronto.edu/km/istar

http://www.cs.toronto.edu/km/OME

© Eric Yu 2001 6

Agent-Oriented Software

•Situated / Pro-active sense the environment and perform actions that change the

environment

•Autonomous have control over their own actions and internal states can act without direct intervention from humans

•Flexible responsive to changes in environment, goal-oriented, opportunistic,

take initiatives

•Social interact with other artificial agents and humans to complete their

tasks and help others

Jennings, Sycara, Wooldridge (1998) A Roadmap of Agent Research & Development. Autonomous Agents & Multi-Agent Systems journal.

© Eric Yu 2001 7

But why Agent Orientation?

•The “world” (application environment) has become more distributed, autonomous, networked… I.e. the agent properties are being found in the world. E.g. E-commerce, e-health, e-learning, groupwork, kn mgt

•Question is: how to make the software systems meet these desired properties (in the world)

•That’s the job of RE (and SE). But previously, no way of expressing these properties. RE languages need to be social, intentional. Most AOSE methodologies focus the system, not on

relationship to the world

© Eric Yu 2001 8

Requirements Engineering• relationship between system and environment.

Bubenko (1980), Greenspan (1982), Jackson (1983)…

•Traditional focus: consistency, completeness, … e.g., “Three Dimensions of RE” Pohl (1993)

• informal -> formal (representation)• opaque -> complete (specification)• personal view -> common view (agreement)

Suitable for a more stable, non-distributed world

•Recent: goals, scenarios, agents See overview in van Lamsweerde (ICSE 2000)

© Eric Yu 2001 9

Ubiquity

• The continual reduction in cost of computing capability has made it possible to introduce processing power into places and devices that would have once been uneconomic

• As processing capability spreads, sophistication (and intelligence of a sort) becomes ubiquitous

• What could benefit from having a processor embedded in it…?

© Eric Yu 2001 10

Interconnection

• Computer systems today no longer stand alone, but are networked into large distributed systems

• The internet is an obvious example, but networking is spreading its ever-growing tentacles…

• Since distributed and concurrent systems have become the norm, some researchers are putting forward theoretical models that portray computing as primarily a process of interaction

© Eric Yu 2001 11

Intelligence

• The complexity of tasks that we are capable of automating and delegating to computers has grown steadily

• If you don’t feel comfortable with this definition of “intelligence”, it’s probably because you are a human

© Eric Yu 2001 12

Delegation

• Computers are doing more for us – without our intervention

• We are giving control to computers, even in safety critical tasks

• One example: fly-by-wire aircraft, where the machine’s judgment may be trusted more than an experienced pilot

• Next on the agenda: fly-by-wire cars, intelligent braking systems, cruise control that maintains distance from car in front…

© Eric Yu 2001 13

Human Orientation

• The movement away from machine-oriented views of programming toward concepts and metaphors that more closely reflect the way we ourselves understand the world

• Programmers (and users!) relate to the machine differently

• Programmers conceptualize and implement software in terms of higher-level – more human-oriented – abstractions

© Eric Yu 2001 14

Global Computing

• What techniques might be needed to deal with systems composed of 1010 processors?

• Don’t be deterred by its seeming to be “science fiction”

• Hundreds of millions of people connected by email / Social Networks even over the phone once seemed to be “science fiction”…

• Let’s assume that current software development models can’t handle this…

© Eric Yu 2001 15

Where does it bring us?

• Delegation and Intelligence imply the need to build computer systems that can act effectively on our behalf

• This implies:– The ability of computer systems to act

independently– The ability of computer systems to act in a way

that represents our best interests while interacting with other humans or systems

© Eric Yu 2001 16

Interconnection and Distribution

• Interconnection and Distribution have become core motifs in IT

• But Interconnection and Distribution, coupled with the need for systems to represent our best interests, implies systems that can cooperate and reach agreements (or even compete) with other systems that have different interests (much as we do with other people)

© Eric Yu 2001 17

Agents, a Definition• An agent is a computer system that is

capable of independent action on behalf of its user or owner (figuring out what needs to be done to satisfy design objectives, rather than constantly being told)

• An Agent can be Software, Hardware and People working together to achieve a goal

© Eric Yu 2001 18

Multiagent Systems, a Definition• A multiagent system is one that

consists of a number of agents, which interact with one-another

• In the most general case, agents will be acting on behalf of users with different goals and motivations

• To successfully interact, they will require the ability to cooperate, coordinate, and negotiate with each other, much as people do

© Eric Yu 2001 19

Spacecraft Control

• When a space probe makes its long flight from Earth to the outer planets, a ground crew is usually required to continually track its progress, and decide how to deal with unexpected eventualities. This is costly and, if decisions are required quickly, it is simply not practicable. For these reasons, organizations like NASA are seriously investigating the possibility of making probes more autonomous — giving them richer decision making capabilities and responsibilities.

• This is not fiction: NASA’s DS1 has done it!

© Eric Yu 2001 20

Air Traffic Control

• “A key air-traffic control system…suddenly fails, leaving flights in the vicinity of the airport with no air-traffic control support. Fortunately, autonomous air-traffic control systems in nearby airports recognize the failure of their peer, and cooperate to track and deal with all affected flights.”

• Systems taking the initiative when necessary• Agents cooperating to solve problems

beyond the capabilities of any individual agent

© Eric Yu 2001 21

A typical process model

… but we need deeper understanding!

Automobile insurance claims example

© Eric Yu 2001 22

… a deeper understanding about processes

• Car owner wants car to be repaired• Insurance company wants to minimize

claims payout• Car owner wants fair appraisal of

repairs• Insurance agent wants to maintain good

customer relations

© Eric Yu 2001 23

Modelling Strategic Actor Relationships and Rationales

- the i* modelling framework

• – have goals, beliefs, abilities, commitments– depend on each other for goals to be

achieved, tasks to be performed, resources to be furnished

– are semi-autonomous -- not fully knowable / controllable

© Eric Yu 2001 24

Strategic Dependency Relationship

Actor A

I want …

Actor B

I can …

D DCar Be Repaired

© Eric Yu 2001 25

i* objectives, premises, key concepts

• Actors are semi-autonomous, partially knowable

• Strategic actors, intentional dependencies

• have choice, reasons about alternate means to ends

means-endsalternatives

D D

wants andabilities

© Eric Yu 2001 26

i* modeling

1. explicit intentionality goals

2. implicit intentionality agents

functionaldecomposition

means-endsalternatives

wants andabilities

inputsoutputs

D D

© Eric Yu 2001 32

Development-World model refers to and reasons about…

Operational-World models

Alt-1 Alt-2 To-beAs-is

Strategic Rationale ModelStrategic Rationale Model

Strategic Dependency ModelsStrategic Dependency Models

© Eric Yu 2001 36

Softgoal Operationalizations: Contribution Relationship

Side-effects to softgoals: Correlation Relationship

© Eric Yu 2001 37

Analysis and Design Support

• opportunities and vulnerabilities– ability, workability, viability, believability– insurance, assurance, enforceability – node and loop analysis

• design issues– raising, evaluating, justifying, settling– based on qualitative reasoning

[Chung Nixon Yu Mylopoulos (2000) Non-Functional Requirements in Software Engineering. Kluwer Academic Publishers.]

© Eric Yu 2001 38

Another Example:

Meeting Scheduler

From: E. Yu. Towards Modelling and Reasoning Support for Early-Phase Requirements Engineering 3rd IEEE Int. Symp. on Requirements Engineering (RE'97) Jan. 6-8, 1997, Washington D.C., USA. pp. 226-235.

© Eric Yu 2001 45

Consider one very successful enterprise...

• important organizational and social aspects are missing in conventional models

© Eric Yu 2001 46

A Strategic Dependency Model

actor

goal dependencytask dependencyresource dependencysoftgoal dependency

LEGEND

© Eric Yu 2001 49

Roles, Positions, Agents

•A Strategic Dependency model showing reward structure for improving performance, based on an example in [Majchrzak96]

agent

position

role

LEGEND

© Eric Yu 2001 50

• For downloading OME: http://www.cs.toronto.edu/km/ome/protected/download.html When prompt for username and password, please enter the following information. username: yorku password: ome4you

© eric yu 2001 1 business processes (from steve easterbrook re slides) business process automation...

Documents

world slide

eric yu

elimination slide

agent properties

agentoriented software

software systems

environment autonomous

world application environment