Multi-agent systems (MASs) are being increasingly used in complex and distributed applications development. Such applications should satisfy the requirements of users in terms of quality. Accordingly, it is important to assess the quality of such systems. In fact, several metrics have been proposed to assess different aspects of multi-agent systems. However, the lack of comprehensive quality model for multi-agent applications that combines the software's characteristics with the proposed metrics limits the usefulness of such metrics. In this paper, we propose an overall quality model for multi-agent-based software, called QM4MAS. An overall quality model gives a global view of the quality showing the relationships between its characteristics. The use of QM4MAS has two main objectives: 1) It allows defining and assessing the MAS quality; 2) it facilitates the maintenance of software product (high quality software is easier to maintain). The proposed model has been applied to JADE applications through a set of metrics. The assessment of JADE's proposed metrics can be done automatically using a tool we developed for this purpose. 298 T. Marir et al.
Flexibility is considered as one of the key objectives of agent-based technology. Despite this, we still lack a fundamental understanding of just what “flexibility in multi-agent system (MAS)” really is. Two main questions must be asked. First, how do agents and MAS achieve a high degree of flexibility? Second, what makes one agent or one MAS more flexible than others agents or others MASs? This paper addresses the answer to these two questions by proposing an ontology of the flexibility property and a mathematical measurement model for this property. The proposed ontology gives a comprehensive view of the flexibility by decomposing it on several characteristics and presents several techniques for implementing each characteristic. In addition, it relates these characteristics to MAS components. The proposed model presents a set of metrics for measuring the different characteristics of the flexibility property. The proposed metrics have been applied to JADE applications using a tool developed for this purpose.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.