Agent-oriented visual modeling and model validation for engineering distributed systems
Agent-Oriented methodologies that have been recently proposed for engineering distributed systems tend to adopt a model-based approach to software development, that is they devise a development process based on the definition of a specific set of models for-each steps in the analysis and in the software design phases. To be put into practice, this approach demands clear guidelines for building and refining models along the software development process, as well as flexible modeling tools which integrates automatic verification techniques at support of model validation. In this paper we describe a modeling environment which integrates an Agent-Oriented (AO) modeling tool with other tools, such as a model-checker for the verification of formal properties of the model and a library which implements graph transformation techniques which can be used to support model refinement and model transformations. In designing it we took into account recommendations from the OMG's Model-Driven Architecture initiative. We illustrate the modeling environment architecture, give details on the AO modeling tool and on the components that allows for the integration with other tools. Examples of how modeling and validation can be interleaved and supported by the modeling environment are given.
visual modeling model validation distributed systems