Using Speech Acts and Agent Architecture to Support Successful Stakeholder Requirements Negotiation

Speech act theory has been used on numerous occasions to create an underlying framework on which communication technologies can be built. Electronic mail filtering methods, communication support tools and modelling techniques using several variants of speech act theory have all been proposed in the last few years. Distributed organisations employ various communication methods in order to share knowledge around the globe; however many of the techniques are asynchronous, time consuming and culturally dependant. This is further exacerbated when conducting projects in such an organisation, that stakeholders are globally distributed and different business and social norms are employed. By applying various speech act theories and using BDI architecture as a framework, it should be possible to create an agent negotiation architecture especially for distributed organisations. This will allow stakeholders enter their project requirements quickly to reach agreements through negotiation, which allow projects to run smoother, faster, with less ambiguity in stakeholder requirements.