Title: A flexible negotiation model for an agent-based software process modelling

Authors: Nao Li, Mingshu Li, Qing Wang, Shuanzhu Du

Addresses: Laboratory for Internet Software Technologies, Institute of Software, The Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100080, China; Graduate University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100039, China. ' Laboratory for Internet Software Technologies, Key Laboratory for Computer Science, Institute of Software, The Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100080, China. ' Laboratory for Internet Software Technologies, Institute of Software, The Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100080, China. ' Laboratory for Internet Software Technologies, Institute of Software, The Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100080, China

Abstract: Our Agent-based Software Process Modelling (ASPM) approach describes a software process as a set of cooperative agents. Negotiation is the way in which the agents construct their cooperative relations, and thus the software process. Currently, most negotiation models use a fixed negotiation protocol and fixed strategies. In order to achieve the flexibility that the negotiation of the agents in ASPM requires, we propose a negotiation model NM-PA. NM-PA mainly includes a generic negotiation protocol and some rules, which possibly change in different negotiation processes. By changing the rules, the model can support multi-protocols and multi-decision-making strategies at a lower cost.

Keywords: negotiation models; cooperative agents; rules; software process modelling; agent-based systems; multi-agent systems; MAS; protocols; decision making.

DOI: 10.1504/IJCAT.2008.017719

International Journal of Computer Applications in Technology, 2008 Vol.31 No.1/2, pp.64 - 73

Published online: 27 Mar 2008 *

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