An agent-oriented methodology for business process management

Abstract

In recent years, agent-oriented methodologies have emerged in the academic domain, each one having its specificities: agent model, formalism, programming, and application domain. However, no methodology has ever been extended to the domain of business processes. The goal of this paper is to use the agent paradigm, i.e. the general logic and the conceptual aspects of its technologies, in the development of a methodology dedicated to the business process management. The proposed approach is inspired by existing agent-based methodologies and from the study of business processes and their modeling. It follows the waterfall model, in which the traditional development phases are easily performed with a return to the previous ones. This approach permits an easy and simple transition from the analysis phase to the implementation one through a general and architectural design. Also, it aims to improve and to optimize the management, interoperability, and reusability of the different business processes that compose the organization and to harmonize the collaborative work of their components. Our methodology consists of four main phases: Analysis, architectural design, general design, and implementation.