Developing strategic agent based web system

Abstract

The web system becomes important not only as a functional application system within a company but as a critical backbone for conducting business in a highly competitive market. It is driving companies to come up with a whole new set of business strategies. Agent technology is emerging because it can supports dynamic distributed system environments. It can autonomously interact with other entities for achieving system’s goal. However, most of methodologies for web development are focusing on technical aspects such as data and process modeling using E-R design and object oriented modeling tools. This dissertation employs strategic agents and proposes a methodology to link strategies to effective system artifacts. Strategic agents are extracted from the three interacting perspectives of customers, competitors, and company itself. The methodology consists of strategic requirement analysis, agent modeling, system design, and system implementation. A real-life case is illustrated to demonstrate the feasibility of our methodology. The resulting web system is more likely to be competitive in this dynamic business world. The SABIDS (Strategic Agent Based Internet Design System) is developed for supporting the designers and strategists. The system using case based reasoning and repository system supports the reuse and conversion of design results. It can recommend the strategic agent automatically based on successful cases. It includes 4 subsystems: user and case management, strategic requirement analysis, system analysis, and design and implementation. It has case bases for recommendation and a repository system for reuse. The SABIDS can enhance the productivity of development process in a systematic fashion. It can also facilitate the communication between developers and business strategists.