Pattern Repository and Reuse in the PASSI Methodology

n the last years, multi-agent systems (MAS) have achieved a remarkable success and diffusion in employment for distributed and complex applications; experiences of industrial applications have been done, for instance, in e-commerce/emarket contexts where usage scenarios require high quality of design as well as secure, affordable and well-performing implementation architectures. In our research we deal with design process of agent societies; this activity involves a set of implications such as capturing the ontology of the domain, representing agent interactions (social aspects), and modelling the ability of performing intelligent behaviours. We consider that a fundamental contribution to the agent oriented software engineering (AOSE) could come by the adoption of proper reuse techniques and tools providing a strong support during the design phase. In pursuing these objectives we defined a reuse technique based on design patterns; this approach is integrated with the PASSI methodology [6], a step-by-step requirements-to-code methodology for developing multi-agent software.