Software Engineering with Java Agent Components

Component-based software engineering (CBSE) and product-line development have delivered significant improvements in software development, promising improved reuse, agility and quality. Components can be (largely) independently developed. To further increase the independence and flexibility of components, software agent components have great promise to improve application and system construction. Built on conventional distributed computing and application management platforms, on web service technology or within a P2P infrastructure, agent components are effective for independent development, for scalable and robust systems and dynamic evolution of features. There are many kinds of software agents, with differing characteristics such as mobility, autonomy, collaboration, persistence and intelligence, each offering greater flexibility than traditional components. We will discuss agent technology and those elements that enable more robust, scalable and evolutionary systems, and the application of agent components to personal assistants and software engineering environments.