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120 HENDERSON-SELLERS
Figure 8.1 Genealogy of Various Agent-Oriented Methodologies and Their Relationships to
Object-Oriented Methodologies
i*
Tropos
MAS-CommonKADS Agent Factory
CAMLE (+AI/KE)

Cassiopeia
MaSE
INGENIAS
ROADMAP
SODA
Kendall
et al.
MESSAGE Adelfe
RAP AAII Gaia Agent OPEN

RUP/UP OMT Fusion OPEN
AOR

OO
PASSI
Prometheus

Source: Modified from Henderson-Sellers (2005).

There are several AO methods acknowledging an OO influence, either from OMG, RUP, or
OPEN (the last of these is discussed in more detail below).
MaSE (DeLoach, 1999; Wood and DeLoach, 2000) is drawn from the legacy of object-oriented
methodologies such as OMT together with influences from the more recent UML as well as pre-
existing work in the realm of agents and multi-agent systems (e.g., Kinny, Georgeff, and Rao,
1996; Kendall and Zhao, 1998). It aims to guide the designer through the multi-agent system
development process from an initial system specification to a set of formal design documents. It
has two phases: analysis and design. The former deals with the specification of system goals, use
cases, sequence diagrams, roles, and tasks, while the latter uses the analysis phase’s outputs to
design agent classes, agent interactions, and agents’ internal components. It is also well supported
by a software tool. Another input to MaSE (Figure 8.1) is the work of Zhang, Kendall, and Jiang
(2002) (referred to hereafter as the ZKJ methodology). The ZKJ methodology focuses on the iden-
tification of goals and roles. It represents the process by a set of ten “activities,” each having an
input, an output, a control, and a mechanism. Four of these activities (Identify actors, Identify use
cases, Identify objects, and Determine business objects) are grouped as “object-oriented analysis
activities,” the rest being focused on agent goals and roles. There are six activities focused on
roles and goals (Identify goals, Develop goal cases, and Identify beliefs, Identify roles, Assign
goals to responsibilities, Assign and compose roles, and Identify composite roles). Indeed, role
identification is an important activity in the ZKJ methodology. Roles are seen as able to execute
a set of activities in order to fulfill one or more responsibilities.