Dealing with software design issues using an Agent-Oriented methodology

Software design is a complex problem-solving process which requires to evaluate several design options while pursuing the objective of adhering to general principles of good quality. For instance, designing open, robust and secure architectures for novel application areas, calls for evaluating and/or integrating different distributed system technologies, such as peer-to-peer and multi-agent systems. This paper proposes a discussion on software architecting and designing strategies adopting an agent-oriented approach. Several works face this issue proposing methodologies based mainly on the use of architectural styles. Here, we focus on general strategies useful in the design process, such as divide-and-conquer, and principles for a good design, such as cohesion and decoupling, and argue that, performing goal analysis, according to Tropos, an agent-oriented methodology, provides methods for applying them. Within the same framework we perform non-functional requirement analysis and evaluate different architectural options that meet them. The methodology has been applied to the development of a decision-support system for Integrated Production in agriculture