Toward the Design of Self–Organizing Dynamics

Abstract

A growing demand for distributed and decentralized software, together with an increasing inherent complexity of these systems challenges traditional software engineering practices. Recently, the utilization of self–organizing processes has been proposed as a way to relieve development efforts. While Agent–Oriented Software Engineering (AOSE) provides suitable abstractions and implementation frameworks for these system dynamics, the design of phenomena that rise solely from entity interactions contradicts traditional top–down development strategies. This paper describes work in progress and outlines a doctoral thesis that addresses the analysis and design of self–organizing distributed systems in Multi–Agent Systems (MAS), i. e. collections of autonomous, pro–active entities.