A multi-agent framework for building an automatic operational profile

Abstract

Since the early 1970s, researchers have proposed several models to improve software reliability. Among these, the operational profile approach is one of the most common. Operational profiles are a quantification of usage patterns for a software application. The research described in this paper investigates a novel multi-agent framework for automatically creating an operational profile for generic distributed systems after their release into the market. The operational profile in this paper is extended to comprise seven different profiles. Also, the criticality of operations is defined using a new composed metrics in order to organise the testing process as well as to decrease the time and cost involved in this process. The proposed framework is considered as a step towards making distributed systems intelligent and self-managing. © 2007 Springer.