The Prometheus Methodology
The Prometheus methodology is a detailed process
for specifying, designing, and implementing intelligent agent systems which we
have been developing over the last several years. Our goal in developing
Prometheus is to have a process with defined deliverables which can be taught to
industry practitioners and undergraduate students who do not have a background
in agents and which they can use to develop intelligent agent systems.
Prometheus distinguishes itself from other methodologies by supporting the
development of intelligent agents, providing "start-to-end" support,
having evolved out of practical industrial and pedagogical experience, having
been used in both industry and academia, and, above all, in being
detailed and complete. Prometheus is also amenable to tool
support and provides scope for cross checking between designs.
The methodology consists of three phases: system specification, architectural
design, and detailed design. An overview of the methodology, including its
phases, deliverables, and intermediate products, is depicted below. Although
the phases are described in a sequential fashion it is acknowledged that like
most Software Engineering methodologies, practice involves revisiting earlier
phases as one works out the details. The following description of the phases
and deliverables is (very!) brief.
For more details see the book Developing Intelligent Agent
Systems: A Practical Guide.
System specification consists of the following activities:
- Identify system goals and sub-goals
- Develop use case scenarios
- Identify the agent system's interface to the environment in terms
of actions, percepts, and external data
- Identify functionalities
- Identify data read and written by functionalities
- Prepare functionality schemas (name, description, actions, percepts, data used/produced, interaction
(with other functionalities), and goals)
Architectural Design consists of the following activities:
- Group functionalities to determine agent types using data coupling
and agent acquaintance diagrams to assess alternative groupings
- Define agent types (also define the number and life-cycle of the agent
types) and develop agent descriptors
- Produce a system level overview diagram describing the overall structure
of the system
- Develop interaction protocols from use case scenarios (via interaction
diagrams)
Detailed Design consists of the following activities:
- Develop process diagrams
- Produce agent overview diagrams showing the internal workings
of agents in terms of capabilities, events, data and plans
- Refine capability internals (add included capabilities and interactions)
- Introduce plans to handle events
- Define details of events (external, between agents, between capabilities and within agents)
- Define details of plans (relevance, context, subgoals)
- Define details of beliefs/data
Prometheus was the wisest Titan. His name means "forethought" and he was
able to foretell the future. Prometheus is known as the protector and
benefactor of man. He gave mankind a number of gifts including fire.
(www.greekmythology.com)