A research report submitted to the Faculty of Engineering, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Engineering. / Due to the dynamic nature of the software engineering industry there is a constant move towards new strategies for solving design problems. More specifically there is a move towards Object Oriented (OO) methodologies, presumably because of the various advantages offered in terms of maintainability, and reuse of code produced this way. As with various other aspects of the software industry there are however also problems encountered in this transition and lessons to be learned from the experience of companies who have already performed this change. This research report investigates possible guidelines for companies who are currently contemplating a change to the OO software design methodologies, by covering a collection of issues one should know about prior to this change. It also summarises the problems faced in the transition so far, the reasons for these problems and suggests possible solutions. Lastly it also investigates new trends in the OO arena. The emphasis is on South African companies and projects. The results obtained are compared with results obtained overseas to find out what the differences and similarities are. Areas of concern are also identified, where theoreticians' views have been ignored, and both South African and overeeas companies have not implemented any of the suggestions made. / Andrew Chakane 2018

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Orientador: Ricardo Ribeiro Gudwin / Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Faculdade de Engenharia Eletrica e de Computação / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-05T14:04:06Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Dario_ClaudiaFilomenaBratficher_M.pdf: 11451853 bytes, checksum: 8ecd6ccb893fcfa7790f5da4d3011ffd (MD5) Previous issue date: 2005 / Resumo: Este trabalho propõe uma Metodologia Unificada para o desenvolvimento de sistemas orientados a agentes. A elaboração desta metodologia foi realizada a partir de um estudo do papel do agente dentro da Engenharia de Software e da análise de diversas metodologias orientadas a agentes encontradas na literatura, enfocando-se principalmente em três destas: MaSE (Muitiagent Systems Engimering Metkodoiogy), Prornetheus e Tropos, além da linguagem de modelagem AÜML {Agem Vnijied Modeling Language). A Metodologia Unificada proposta visa aproveitar o que há de melhor nestas metodologias, buscando elementos comuns a todas elas, de modo análogo ao que ocorreu com a metodologia unificada (RUP - Raiional Unified Process) em sistemas orientados a objetos. Para validar a Metodologia Unificada e analisar as demais metodologias, um estudo de caso foi modelado. A Metodologia Unificada se mostrou eficiente no projeto, documentação e construção de sistemas multi-agentes, sendo considerada uma metodologia detalhada e mais completa por cobrir os estágios de especificação de requisitos, de análise e de projeto no desenvolvimento de software orientados a agentes / Abstract: This work proposes a Unified Methodology for the development of agent-oriented systems. The methodology was elaborated based on a study of agent's role within software engineering and the analysis of different agent-based software development methodologies found in the literature, focusing in three main ones: MaSE (Muitiagent Systems Engineering Methodology), Prometheus and Tropos, in addition to the modeling language AUM.L (Agent Unified Modeling Language). The Unified Methodology aims at taking advantage of the best from each methodology, searching for common elements among them, in an effort similar to what happened with the Unified Methodology (RUP - Rational Unified Process) in object-oriented systems. To validate the Unified Methodology and analyze the other methodologies, a case study was developed. The Unified Methodology has shown to be efficient in the design, documentation and construction of multi-agent systems. We conclude it to be a detailed and more complete methodology, covering requirements specification, analysis and design stages of agent-based software development / Mestrado / Engenharia de Computação / Mestre em Engenharia Elétrica