Strukturierung petrinetzbasierter Multiagentenanwendungen am Beispiel verteilter Softwareentwicklungsprozesse

The development of complex, distributed applications in heterogenous environments is an important challenge of computer science. Petri nets offer a good combination of intuitive modeling and clear semantics for the modeling and implementation of distributed, concurrent applications. To manage net models for large-scale systems however, it is important to find a suitable structuring of the models involved. Agentoriented software engineering has been proven to be a successful paradigm of software engineering in this context. Multiagent systems allow the modeling of autonomous actors interacting in a larger system context. For the design of agent-oriented applications a central question is the choice of agent types and their interaction patterns. Within the field of Petri net-based software engineering, further means of structuring multiagent applications are examined in this work. The two orthogonal dimensions of structure and process are considered for system design in general and agent-oriented software engineering in particular. The structural dimension is addressed in this work with the HeRA-System (HElper and Resource Agents), which models functions and resources of the application domain as agents. HeRA allows the definition of helper and resource agents that populate the workspace of a user and enable him to flexibly assemble the functionality he needs. Using interconnected agent platforms in a distributed multiagent system serves to define the system structure as a whole. Pia (Process Infrastructure for Agents) supports the process-oriented view. Processes in multiagent systems can be modelled and controlled in this agent-oriented workflow management system, in order to formalize and support the execution of processes within organizations as well as between different, cooperating organizations. In this work additional extensions to Pia are implemented in order to facilitate an integration with the HeRA-system. Both these structural dimensions are combined within the Potato-system (Process-Oriented Tool Agents for Team Organization). As a conceptional framework Potato offers an integrated approach to designing multiagent applications using an artifact-based approach together with a process-oriented one. The motivation and example used in this work is an application for the support of distributed software development. Potato offers concepts for the design of an integrated development environment to support the collaborative work of geographically distributed actors. Requirements for such a distributed development environment are developed and an agent-oriented design for its implementation is created using the Paose (Petri net and Agent-Oriented Software Engineering) approach. The applicability is shown through a set of prototypes.