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THE STATE OF SYSTEMS ANALYSIS AND DESIGN RESEARCH 7
Part III. Agent-Oriented Systems Analysis and Design Methodologies

The two chapters in this section deal specifically with agent-oriented (AO) methodologies. Agent
methodologies are gaining popularity, and we are pleased to present two exemplary research
chapters in this area in the volume.
Chapter 7, “Agent-Oriented Information Systems Analysis and Design: Why and How,” argues
that emerging applications such as e-business, peer-to-peer, and ubiquitous computing require new
software development paradigms that support open, distributed, and evolving architectures. This
chapter presents the Tropos methodology for agent-oriented software development and compares
it with other proposals in the same family. The Tropos methodology is currently supported by a
range of formal analysis tools, and its application has been explored along a number of fronts:
design of Web services and business processes, design of autonomic software, and also design of
Web sites and user interfaces.
Chapter 8, “Agent-Oriented Methods and Method Engineering,” surveys a number of con-
temporary agent-oriented methodological approaches and examines their evolution from and
relationship to earlier object-oriented methodologies. This chapter proposes an approach that is
based on the ideas of situational method engineering (SME). The author argues this as a better
approach than attempting to create a “one-size-fits-all” AO methodology. A brief case study is
included in the chapter.
Part IV. New Approaches and Architectures for Information Systems
Development

Approaches (Iivari, Hirschheim, and Klein, 2001) exist at a relatively abstract level and as such
propose the basic principles, goals, and concepts that provide a basis for explaining how systems
development is understood and developed. At the same time, however, approaches are concrete
enough to allow research to proceed. Conceptual and domain-based research represent the efforts
in this section.
Chapter 9, “Application of the Fact-Based Approach to Domain Modeling of Object-Oriented
Information Systems,” identifies a number of problems associated with the text analysis approach
and proposes the use of the fact-based approach (also known as Object Role Modeling) as an
alternative technique. This chapter shows how the fact-based approach can be used effectively, in
conjunction with the use case approach, in the construction of domain models for object-oriented
information systems. In particular, this chapter demonstrates (a) how the order of data entry de-
pendency can be used in identifying and organizing the fact types; (b) how the conceptual schema
(that is, the fact-type model) can be validated in several simple but effective ways; and (c) how
to convert the conceptual schema into a domain class model.
Chapter 10, “Systematic Derivation and Evaluation of Domain-Specific, Implementation-
Independent Software Architectures,” presents a systematic process and a supporting tool, Refer-
ence Architecture Representation Environment, for deriving and evaluating a high-level software
architecture, the Domain Reference Architecture (DRA). The proposed architecture reflects quality
goals prioritized by the architect, including reusability, maintainability, performance, integratabil-
ity, reliability, and comprehensibility. The DRA is an implementation-independent architecture
composed of Domain Reference Architecture Classes, each of which specifies some portion of
domain data and functionality.
Chapter 11, “OO-Method: A Conceptual Schema-Centric Development Approach,” examines
the foundation of Model-Driven Architecture (MDA) and discusses its weak points. It introduces