Software Engineering Challenges for Mutable Agent Systems

Reconfigurability and mutability are features frequently found in agents operating in heterogeneous computing environment. At the same time, they pose major challenges to the software engineering process. In this paper we review these challenges and discuss their implications towards the agent oriented software engineering methodologies. We propose a set of extensions to the Gaia agent-oriented design and analysis methodology. These extensions allow the methodology to handle certain important classes of mutable systems. These results are presented in the context of the Bond system, a FIPA compliant agent framework, with support for reconfigurability and mutability.