Towards a New Approach for MAS Situational Method Engineering: a Fragment Definition

This paper introduces a new definition of method fragment intended to represent MAS development approaches in a more standardized and coherent way, thus facilitating the configuration of situational methods. In order to do that, we take into account three complementary notions: (i) a method fragment description based on SPEM 2.0 elements; (ii) two method fragment perspectives, the internal and the external view, and (iii) four method fragment granularity layers. Moreover, this definition establishes some mechanisms for method fragments’ encapsulation and identification. The proposed method fragment definition is illustrated through an example using Tropos.