Using and extending the SPEM specifications to represent agent oriented methodologies Valeria Seidita Valeria Seidita - 3 Dicembre 2007

Outline The need for a formal methodology description SPEM for describing an agent oriented methodology PASSI: an example The needed extension Discussion and conclusion Valeria Seidita

Introduction Adopting Situational Method Engineering for composing agent oriented design processes Process Requirements Analysis Method Fragments Selection Method Fragments Assembly It is fundamental the creation and the use of a method fragments repository To be constructed following a specific process Elements for constructing the repository A well known set of existing methodology The definition of method fragment to be used A notation to describe a development process Valeria Seidita

The Method Fragment Definition Valeria Seidita

The Process Description Three are the main elements of a design process Activity Process Role Work Product MMM Element The SPEM (Software Process Engineering Metamodel) is based on the idea that “a software development process is a collaboration between abstract entity called process role that perform operation called activities on tangible entities called work product”. Valeria Seidita

The Process Description Each fragment refers to one (or more) MMM element The MMM element is the constituent part of a Work Product The MMM is not part of SPEM metamodel It is the main element leading in modifying and extending SPEM diagram When we construct a new design process we start from the creation of its meta model Each part (one or more elements) of this meta model can be designed in one fragment (or more) Valeria Seidita

The Process Description The need for establishing which is the real action a process role performs on a MMM element when he is carrying out a specific activity The set of actions: Define – it is performed when a MMM element is introduced for the first time and its features are defined in a portion of process (hence in a fragment) Relate – when a relationship is created (defined) among two or more MMM elements previously defined in another portion of process Quote – a MMM element or a relationship is quoted in a specific work product Valeria Seidita – Hammamet 12 december 2007

Modelling a methodology with SPEM SPEM version 1.0 A top-down approach to describe who performs what and how SPEM main process component element we use: Process Component – a portion of process description that is internally consistent Discipline – is a specialization of process component that partitions activities under common theme Valeria Seidita – Hammamet 12 december 2007

Modelling a methodology with SPEM SPEM main structural elements a process description is composed of: WorkDefinition – the kind of operation describing the work performed in the process Phase – it is a specialization of WorkDefiniton and contains some milestones Activities – it describes a piece of work performed by one process role Step – the atomic part of an activity Process Role – defines the responsibility over a specific work product Work Product – the artifact, produced, consumed or modified by a process Far notare che the artefact, produced, consumed or modified by a process è in qualche modo legato a define relate e quote Valeria Seidita – Hammamet 12 december 2007 Valeria Seidita - 3 Dicembre 2007

Valeria Seidita – Hammamet 12 december 2007 Process Component Discipline is a kind of contains Phases is composed of Activities Per la descrizione di una porzione di processo o di un processo intero partiamo dalle discipline del process component Steps Process Role is performed by is composed of Valeria Seidita – Hammamet 12 december 2007 Valeria Seidita - 3 Dicembre 2007

Valeria Seidita – Hammamet 12 december 2007 SPEM Diagram The most important one for our purposes are: Activity Diagram – it allows describing the sequencing of activities with the input and output work products and separating the responsibility of each process role through swimlanes. Work Product Dependency Diagram – it allows to represent the dependencies among all the work product of design process. Valeria Seidita – Hammamet 12 december 2007

Valeria Seidita – Hammamet 12 december 2007 SPEM Diagram Other diagrams we use: Package diagram – allowing the representation of process component and discipline and its related process roles and workproducts Use Case diagram – for representing the relationships (for each discipline) among process roles and activities. Three different levels of details for activity diagrams: Process Component  Phase and Workproducts Phase  WorkDefinitions and UML Diagrams\Documents WorkDefioniton  ProcessRoles, Activity and UMLDiagr./Doc. Valeria Seidita – Hammamet 12 december 2007

Valeria Seidita – Hammamet 12 december 2007 An Example: PASSI Valeria Seidita – Hammamet 12 december 2007

Valeria Seidita – Hammamet 12 december 2007 An Example: PASSI PASSI includes six disciplines Direct correspondence between the disciplines and the PASSI phases Valeria Seidita – Hammamet 12 december 2007

Valeria Seidita – Hammamet 12 december 2007 An Example: PASSI Each phase produces a WorkProduct Each phase is composed of one or more sub-phases that we represented as WorkDefinitions A sub-phase is responsible for designing or refining one or more artefacts that are part of the corresponding model Each phase produces a document that is usually composed aggregating the UML models and work products produced during the related activities. Each phase is composed of one or more sub-phases each one responsible for designing or refining one or more artefacts that are part of the corresponding model (for instance the System Requirements model includes an agent identification diagram that is a kind of UML use case diagrams but also some text documents like a glossary and the system use scenarios). The details of each phase and its related sub-phases wil Valeria Seidita – Hammamet 12 december 2007 Valeria Seidita - 3 Dicembre 2007

An Example: PASSI Valeria Seidita

Valeria Seidita – Hammamet 12 december 2007 An Example: PASSI Input and output WorkProducts Responsibilities of each Process Roles Each Activity produces as results a WorkProduct where one (or more) MMM element is defined/quoted/relat ed Parte costituente di un work product è l’elemento del MMM, dell’intero processo, che in esso viene definito o rifinito. Ogni frammento fa riferimento ad un particolare elemento del MMM del processo; in altre parole qualunque processo di progettazione agent oriented presente in letteratura è sotteso da un ben preciso meta modello, ogni parte dell’intero processo, ogni componente o attività, è devoted alla progettazione di uno o più elementi di questo meta modello. Il risultato di una attività di un processo è un work product nel quale quindi uno o più elementi del meta modello vengono progettati. Valeria Seidita – Hammamet 12 december 2007 Valeria Seidita - 3 Dicembre 2007

Valeria Seidita – Hammamet 12 december 2007 The need for extension Valeria Seidita – Hammamet 12 december 2007

Conclusion SPEM is well suited for the description of an agent oriented methodology It provides a set of elements allowing a top- down decomposition of a methodology The proposed decomposition allows an easy identification/extraction of method fragments However we found some difficulties in the application and discrimination of the concepts of WorkDefinition, Phase and Activity; some simplifications was required SPEM si adatta bene alla descrizione di una metodologia ad agenti, esso fornisce una serie di elementi che permettono in maniera semplice di procedere ad una descrizione e scomposizione di una metodologia seguendo un approccio top-down; tuttavia abbiamo trovato difficoltà nella applicazione dei concetti di workdefinition phase e activity, per cui abbiamo dovuto in certo senso semplificare il meta modello in questo modo: Valeria Seidita Valeria Seidita - 3 Dicembre 2007

Thanks for your attention seidita@csai.unipa.it Valeria Seidita