Agent Orientation and Information Systems

1. Agent OrientationandInformation Systems Eric YuUniversity of Toronto Presentation at Tsinghua University, Beijing, China July 8, 1999

2. Information Systems research at theUniversity of Toronto • Dept. of Computer Science • Databases, Information Systems • Artificial Intelligence, Knowledge Rep. • Software Engineering, Requirements Eng. • Dept. of Industrial Engineering • Faculty of Management • Faculty of Information Studies • Knowledge Media Design Institute @ Eric Yu 1999

3. Outline of this talk 1. An Emerging Paradigm in Computing 2. Agent Orientation for Enterprise Information Systems? 3. An Agent-Oriented Modelling Framework i* 4. Research Directions @ Eric Yu 1999

4. AOIS workshop @ AutonomousAgents’99 Seattle USA May 1, 1999 @ CAiSE*99 Heidelberg Germany June 14-15, 1999 • Invited speakers • Katia Sycara (Carnegie-Mellon Univ.) • Mike Huhns (Univ. S.Carolina) • John Mylopoulos (Univ. Toronto) • Cristiano Castelfranchi (Psych., NRC, Italy) • Stefan Kirn (TU-Ilmenau, Germany) • 2 panels, 9 contributed papers http://aois.org @ Eric Yu 1999

5. Part 1Agent-Orientation as an emergingparadigm in Computing • Programming Paradigms • Agent Abstractions • Agent Architectures @ Eric Yu 1999

6. Programming Paradigms • 1950’s -- Machine and assembly language • 1960’s -- Procedural programming • 1970’s -- Structured programming • 1980’s -- Object-based and declarative programming • 1990’s -- Frameworks, design patterns, scenarios, protocols, and components (ActiveX/COM and Java Beans) The trend has been from elements that represent abstract computations to elements that represent the real world [Huhns AOIS’99]

7. Concept Procedural Language Object Language Multiagent Language Abstraction Building Block Computation model Design Paradigm Architecture Modes of Behavior Terminology Type Instance, Data Procedure/Call Tree of procedures Functional decomposition Coding Implement Class Object Method/Message Interaction patterns Inheritance and Polymorphism Designing and using Engineer Society, Team Agent Perceive/Reason/Act Cooperative interaction Managers, Assistants, and Peers Enabling and enacting Activate Features ofLanguages and Paradigms [Huhns AOIS’99]

8. Agent Abstractions Agent abstractions are mentalistic beliefs: agent’s representation of the world knowledge: (usually) true beliefs desires: preferred states of the world goals: consistent desires intentions: goals adopted for action Multi-agent abstractions involve interactions social: about collections of agents organizational: about teams and groups ethical: about right and wrong actions legal: about contracts and compliance [Huhns AOIS’99] @ Eric Yu 1999

9. Why Do These Abstractions Matter? • Because modern applications go beyond traditional metaphors and models in terms of their dynamism, openness, and trustworthiness • virtual enterprises: manufacturing supply chains, autonomous logistics • electronic commerce: utility management • communityware: social user interfaces • problem-solving by teams [Huhns AOIS’99] @ Eric Yu 1999

10. Deliberative Agents Other Approaches Interacting Agents Reactive Agents Hybrid Agents Agent Architectures Agent architectures [Kirn AOIS’99] @ Eric Yu 1999

11. Plan 1 Pattern 1 Pattern 2 Pattern n Plan 2 Plan n Reactive Agents World Controller Stimuli Plans E f f e c t o r S e n s o r . . . . . . Agent [Kirn AOIS’99] @ Eric Yu 1999

12. Environment Model Domain Knowledge Goals Planner Deliberative Agents World Cognition Inference Strategies Memory E f f e c t o r S e n s o r Utility Function Inter- pretation Agent [Kirn AOIS’99] @ Eric Yu 1999

13. Types of Information Agents Application Program User Interface Agent • “Standard” information agents and architectures are becoming available Reply Reg/Unreg (KQML) Reply Query or Update In SQL Ontology Agent Broker Agent Reg/Unreg (KQML) Mediator Agent Ontology (CLIPS) Reg/Unreg (KQML) Mediated Query (SQL) Reg/Unreg (KQML) Schemas (CLIPS) Mediated Query (SQL) Reply Reply Database Resource Agent Database Resource Agent [Huhns AOIS’99] @ Eric Yu 1999

14. Part 2Agent-Orientation for Enterprise Information Systems • The Changing Nature of Enterprise • The Challenge for Enterprise Systems • Why Agent-Orientation for Enterprise Systems @ Eric Yu 1999

15. The Changing Nature of Enterprise • distributed and networked • people, organization, and work practices, not just the technology! • diversity, local autonomy, open-endedness • much uncertainty, incomplete knowledge & control • need flexibility • change and evolution • constantly and rapid @ Eric Yu 1999

16. The Challenge for Enterprise Systems • need to deal with conflicting needs and demands from many players / stakeholders FromIntegrationtoCooperation AutonomousIslands Cooperation“working together” FullIntegration @ Eric Yu 1999

17. Why Agent-Orientation for Enterprise Information Systems • Agent orientation addresses the demands and challenges of new enterprise environments and systems • What would it mean? We should develop Agent-Oriented... • requirements engineering techniques, models • design and architectural approaches • implementation methods and technologies • run-time and evolution support @ Eric Yu 1999

18. Part 3An Agent-Oriented Modelling Framework i* • Understanding “Why” — intentionality • Strategic Dependencies • Strategic Rationales • Analysis and Design Support • Knowledge Representation @ Eric Yu 1999

19. Modelling for Enterprise Systems • It is well-recognized that many types of modelling are required to deal with the various aspects of enterprise, e.g., • activity modelling • function modelling • resource modelling • information modelling • organization modelling • e.g., CIMOSA, GERAM,... @ Eric Yu 1999

20. Towards richer organization modelling • How do we express and reason about • motivations • rewards • different ways for achieving objectives • understanding “why” • opportunities and vulnerabilities … strategic business and social relationships @ Eric Yu 1999

21. Consider one very successful enterprise... • important organizational and social aspects are missing in conventional models @ Eric Yu 1999

22. Modelling Strategic Actor Relationships and Rationales - thei*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 Strategic Actors @ Eric Yu 1999

23. Wants and Abilities I can provide ... I want... @ Eric Yu 1999

24. LEGEND goal dependency task dependency resource dependency softgoal dependency actor A Strategic Dependency Model @ Eric Yu 1999

25. Roles, Positions, Agents LEGEND agent position role • A Strategic Dependency model showing reward structure for improving performance, based on an example in [Majchrzak96] @ Eric Yu 1999

26. Some strategic dependencies between IKEA and its customers @ Eric Yu 1999

27. A Strategic Rationale Model @ Eric Yu 1999

28. Analysis and Design Support • opportunities and vulnerabilities • ability, workability, viability, believability • insurance, assurance, enforceability • node and loop analysis [Yu ICEIMT’97] • design issues • raising, evaluating, justifying, settling • based on qualitative reasoning [Chung Nixon Yu Mylopoulos, forthcoming monograph] @ Eric Yu 1999

29. Means-Ends Analysis Handle claim Verify policy Claims Handling Settle claim Prepare offer Whose fault? Settlement cost? Determine fault Get accident info Actor boundary Determine cost to settle D D Minimal repairs D D Accident info Sufficient treatment D Injury info Police Appraise damage Doctor Appraiser Witness [Mylopoulos AOIS’99] @ Eric Yu 1999

30. Sample i* representation for an actor (in Telos) TELL Class Physician IN PositionClass ISA ProfessionalPosition WITH resDepends, committedTo fs: FeeForTreatment WITH dependee cm:ClaimsManager end goalDepended, commitsTo td: $Treated(p.injury)$ WITH depender p:Patient end taskDepends, committedTo tm: TakeMedication(p.med) WITH dependee p:Patient end covers tp: TreatingPatient(p) bi: Billing(p.insurCo) integrityConstraint correctClaimsManager: $cm=p.insurCo.claimsMgr$ end @ Eric Yu 1999

31. The Strategic Rationale Model - a partial schema @ Eric Yu 1999

32. Contributions • new ontology • new types of reasoning • applied to business process modelling, enterprise modelling, requirements engineering, software process, organization analysis • Some applications by external groups • software maintenance domain [Briand95, 97] • CIM [Petit98] @ Eric Yu 1999

33. Ongoing Work • formal knowledge representation using a conceptual modelling language Telos • tool building - GUI, repository support • knowledge libraries • strategic knowhow • case-based reasoning • patterns • case studies • coordination with other modelling techniques @ Eric Yu 1999

34. Related Work • Goal-Oriented and Agent-Oriented Requirements Engineering (e.g., Feather87, Dardenne93, Chung93, Bubenko93, Dubois94, Anton97)see also ISRE, ICRE, RE j., REFSQ. • CSCW, groupware, workflow, COOCS (now GROUP) • Enterprise Integration (e.g., ICEIMT) • AI, Distributed AI • Organization Theories @ Eric Yu 1999

35. Part 4Research Directions #1 Requirements-Driven Information Systems Engineering (J. Mylopoulos, E. Yu) #2 Cooperative Information Systems (G. DeMichelis, E. Dubois, M. Jarke, F. Matthes, J. Mylopoulos, M. Papazoglou, J. Schmidt, C. Woo, E. Yu) #3 Intentionality Management (E. Yu) @ Eric Yu 1999

36. Research Direction #1Requirements-Driven Information System Engineering • Traditionally, IS Engineering has been implementation-driven. • This means that the programming paradigm of the day dictated the design and requirements paradigms. • So, structured programming led to structured design and (requirements) analysis, while object-oriented programming led to object-oriented design and analysis. What wouldrequirements-driven IS Engineering look like?? [Mylopoulos AOIS’99] @ Eric Yu 1999

37. Why Requirements-Driven? • Requirements analysis is arguably the most important phase of information system development; that’s where the most and the costliest errors are introduced in software systems. • The importance of detailed design and implementation will wear off over time, thanks to software reuse, COTS and the like; requirements analysis will always be there and will always be important. • Requirements analysis is the phase where technology meets the real world, where technical considerations have to be balanced against personal, organizational and social ones; this calls for special skills on the part of the requirements engineer, and makes the phase particularly challenging. [Mylopoulos AOIS’99] @ Eric Yu 1999

38. Where Are We?? Agent-oriented programming i* KAOS Z UML Detailed design Architectural design Early requirements Late requirements Implementation [Mylopoulos AOIS’99] @ Eric Yu 1999

39. Where Do We Want To Be?? Agent-oriented programming i* Detailed design Architectural design Late requirements Early requirements Implementation Guiding Principle: Push concepts as far down as possible (…and see what happens!) [Mylopoulos AOIS’99] @ Eric Yu 1999

40. Research Direction #2Cooperative Information Systems “Cooperative Information Systems: A Manifesto”G. DeMichelis, E. Dubois, M. Jarke, F. Matthes, J. Mylopoulos, M. Papazoglou, K. Pohl, J. Schmidt, C. Woo, E. Yuin Cooperative Information Systems: Trends and Directions, M. Papazoglou and G. Schlageter (eds). Academic Press, 1997. “A three-faceted view of information systems”G. DeMichelis, E. Dubois, M. Jarke, F. Matthes, J. Mylopoulos, J. Schmidt, C. Woo, E. Yu.Communications of the ACM, December 1998. @ Eric Yu 1999

41. When is an IS cooperative? “An information system is cooperative if it shares goals with other agents in its environment, such as other information systems, human agents and the organization itself, and contributes positively towards the fulfillment of these common goals.” @ Eric Yu 1999

42. Organizational Facet Group Collaboration Facet Systems Facet Three Facets of “Working Together” @ Eric Yu 1999

43. Complementarity of... Organizational Facet andGroup Collaboration Facet @ Eric Yu 1999

44. Towards a generic architecturefor Cooperative Information Systems @ Eric Yu 1999

45. Research Direction #3Intentionality Management • Beyond information management • managing the networks of intentional attitudes and relationships – goals, beliefs, wants, abilities, commitments, … • managing choice, decision making, uncertainty, openness and freedom • is an elaboration on an important aspect of “knowledge management” @ Eric Yu 1999

46. Intentionality Management (cont’d) • Software development is but one example of “intentionality-intensive” work environments. • other examples: enterprise management, virtual enterprise, product design/development, “knowledge work” in general, ... @ Eric Yu 1999

47. Summary and Conclusions • We are at the threshold of a new era for computing. • Agent-Orientation will give us • (not only) more powerful computing technologies • (but also) more effective computing that will better meet enterprise and human needs • through use of social organization paradigm for computing • and incorporation of social organizational analysis into overall framework for modelling analysis, and design @ Eric Yu 1999

48. Sponsors and Partners • Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) • Communications and Information Technology Ontario (CITO) • Institute for Robotics and Intelligent Systems (IRIS) • Mitel Corporation • IBM For further information and references, please seehttp://www.fis.utoronto.ca/~yu @ Eric Yu 1999