Intelligent software agents and business-oriented application scenarios
Stefan
Kirn
Email: Stefan.Kirn@wirtschaft.tu-ilmenau.de
Technische Univ. Ilmenau, Germany
1. Is agent-orientation for IS primarily an implementation
technology, or will it also be a shift in representational paradigm?
Implementation technology: surely yes. But it may also help to represent
real world scenarios more adequately than before. What I am missing in
your question is the issue of dynamics: Agent technology will also help
to better cope with every day dynamics in world-wide business processes,
e.g. by supporting local autonomy.
2. Why are agent concepts relevant to IS? Are they introduced
to achieve new functionality, or to achieve non-functional qualities?
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conventional IT-architectures are not able to address the new challenges
of rapidly increasing dynamics and complexity
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downsizing of large ISs requires component-based technology
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agent technology, in that context, provides interesting approaches to add
intelligence to local (self-)control of software components as well as
to coordination of system-wide problem-solving processes
3. What are the relevant properties of an agent from an IS perspective?
No idea, what a general statement could say here. All of your suggestions
are in some way necessary, but with different relevance to different situations
/ design tasks / system states etc.
4. What are the implications of agent-orientation on the IS development
process?
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changes of our understanding of SW architectures
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new test methods required
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conflict between local autonomy together with problem solving-based system
behavior and system-wide stable, predictable system behavior
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important: new research efforts required; agent technology is still very
far away from providing us with the relevant knowledge, understanding etc.
to design and maintain large knowledge-based systems
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completely unclear: interactions / dependencies between the organizational
(social) system of an enterprise, and the structure as well as the behavor
of single agents, and of a multiagent system.
In order to address some of the problems in this area the German Research
Fondation has just launched a new research program "Intelligent software
agents and business-oriented application scenarios" (coordinator: Stefan
Kirn). A short presentation can be given at the panel.
5. What are the key components of an agent-oriented approach to IS?
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Knowledge representation and reasoning? I believe: Yes
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Should everything be treated as an agent? no!
6. What transitional pathways can be envisaged for realizing an
AOIS vision?
This question is very (too) speculative...