Title: An agent-based approach for supporting the knowledge transfer in the software requirements engineering

Authors: Francisco Milton Mendes Neto; Marçal José De Oliveira Morais II

Addresses: DCEN Postgraduate Program in Computer Science, UFERSA Naturals and Exacts Sciences Department, Rural Federal University of the Semi-Arid, Br 110 KM 47, Mossoró, Rio Grande do Norte, 59625-900, Brazil. ' Federal Institute for Education, Science and Technology of Rio Grande do Norte – IFRN, Nova Caicó, RN-118, Caicó, Rio Grande do Norte, 59300-000, Brazil

Abstract: The software requirements engineering consists of knowledge-intensive procedures, involving various profiles, which handle a wide range of information. The adoption of a solution that satisfies the knowledge demands related to requirements engineering is not a trivial task. Despite all the investment made by research institutions and software development organisations in automated environments to support the software process, the quality levels and the productivity rates they need has not been reached. In requirements engineering, the experience, which helps avoid mistakes of the past and improve decision making, still lies mainly in the organisation collaborators. This paper intends to contribute to software requirements engineering by proposing a new approach to support the transference of the knowledge related to the software process to workers that need it. The proposed approach will support the software requirements engineering through the creation of an agent-based model to assist the development of intelligent agents that can: 1) realise the knowledge needs; 2) interact with the information systems; 3) support executing the software developer tasks. In other words, the paper proposes creating a multi-agent system to manage knowledge related to the execution of software development processes.

Keywords: software process; knowledge management; KM; multi-agent systems; MAS; agent-based systems; software requirements engineering; knowledge transfer; intelligent agents; software development; information systems; agent-based modelling.

DOI: 10.1504/IJBIS.2013.050658

International Journal of Business Information Systems, 2013 Vol.12 No.1, pp.23 - 43

Published online: 10 May 2013 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article