Checking social properties of multi-agent systems with activity theory

Abstract

Many approaches of the agent paradigm emphasize the social and intentional features of their systems, what are called social properties. The study of these aspects demands their own new techniques. Traditional Software Engineering approaches cannot manage with all the information about these components, which are as related with software development as with social disciplines. Following previous work, this paper presents a framework based in the Activity Theory to specify and verify social properties in a development process for multi-agent systems. Using this framework developers acquire tools for requirements elicitation and traceability, to detect inconsistencies in their specifications, and to get new insights into their systems. The way of working with these tools is shown with a case study. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2004.