Agent-oriented software engineering is a new software engineering paradigm that is ideally suited to the analysis and design of complex systems. Open distributed environments place a growing demand on complex systems to be adaptive as well. Complex systems that can learn from and adapt to dynamically changing environments are called complex adaptive systems. These systems are characterized by emergent behaviour caused by interactions between system components and the environment. Agent-oriented software engineering methodologies attempt to control emergence during analysis and design by engineering the complex system in such a way that the correct emergent behaviour results during run-time. In a complex adaptive system however, emergent behaviour cannot be predicted during analysis and design, as it evolves only after implementation. By restricting emergent behaviour, as is done in most agent-oriented software engineering approaches, a complex system cannot be fully adaptive as well. We propose the BaBe methodology that will enable a complex system to be adaptive by learning from its environment and modifying its behaviour during run-time. This methodology adds a run-time emergence model consisting of distributed Bayesian behaviour networks to the agent-oriented software engineering lifecycle. These networks are initialised by the human software engineer during analysis and design and deployed by Bayesian agencies (also complex adaptive systems). The Bayesian agents are simple, and collectively they implement distributed Bayesian behaviour networks. These networks, being specialized Bayesian networks, enable the Bayesian agents to collectively mine relationships between emergent behaviours and the interactions that caused them to emerge, in order to adapt the behaviour of the system. The agents are organized into heterarchies of agencies, where each agency activates one or more component behaviour depending on the inference in the underlying Bayesian behaviour network. These agencies assist the human software engineer to bridge the gap between the implementation and the understanding of emergent behaviour in complex adaptive systems. Due to the simplicity of the agents and the minimal communication amongst them, they can be implemented using a commercially available component architecture. We describe a prototype implementation of the Bayesian agencies using Sun’s Enterprise JavaBeans™ component architecture. / Thesis (PhD (Computer Science))--University of Pretoria, 2005. / Computer Science / unrestricted

Syftet med denna studie är att förstå hur fenomenet platthet fungerar och upplevs i organisationer samt att få en ökad förståelse för självorganisering och formella och informella strukturer i icke-hierarkiska organisationer. En experimentell fenomenologisk studie gjordes på svenska platta organisationer med kriteriet få eller inga mellannivåer av chefer. Metoden som användes var en metodkombination där gruppintervjuer och djupintervjuer kombinerades. Totalt intervjuades åtta antal personer på företagen där en semistrukturerad intervjuguide användes som baserades på Jo Freemans essä The Tyranny of structurelessness från 1970. Det empiriska materialet kategoriserades senare genom en tematisk innehållsanalys och analyserades genom tre ansatser för att kunna identifiera och beskriva hur företagen var platta. Resultatet och analysen visade att de två företagen kunde anses vara platta på olika sätt. Andra fynd var att konceptet platt är komplext där olika faktorer samspelar med varandra. Vidare forskning bör fokusera på om det är organisationen som initierar platthet eller om rätt individer väljs in i en organisation och gör den platt. Vidare forskning kan också fokusera på intersektionalitet och hur identitet och makt samspelar i en platt organisation för att främja demokratisk deltagarmakt. / The purpose of this study is to understand how the phenomenon of flatness works and is experienced in organizations and to gain an increased understanding of self-organization and formal and informal structures in non-hierarchical organizations. An experimental phenomenological study was conducted on two flat organizations in Sweden with the criterion of few or no middle levels of managers. The method used was a method combination where group interviews and in-depth interviews were combined. A total of eight people were interviewed at the companies where a semi-structured interview guide based on Jo Freeman's essay The Tyranny of structurelessness from 1970 were used. The empirical material was later categorized through a thematic content analysis and analyzed through three approaches to be able to identify and describe how the companies were flat. The result and the analysis showed that the two companies could be considered flat in different ways. Other findings were that the concept flat is complex where different factors interact with each other. Further research should focus on whether it is the organization that initiates flatness or whether the right individuals are selected into an organization and make it flat. Further research can also focus on intersectionality and how identity and power interact in a flat organization to promote democratic participation.