The behavior-oriented design of modular agent intelligence
NODe'02 Proceedings of the NODe 2002 agent-related conference on Agent technologies, infrastructures, tools, and applications for E-services
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Most companies require a precise "process-oriented" description of actions, tasks and processes carried out by their employees. "Who does what and in which order?" - it is often asked. The description is a ground for quality management and for further evaluation and effectiveness optimalisation. Most business toolkits allow process modelling and some of them also process simulation, e.g. [3]. However, these simulations and their results are visualized by means of some diagrams or statistical analysis, and it is often hard for managers to cope with these techniques.We aimed at exploiting intelligent virtual agents in business-process simulations in order to ease evaluation. We want to develop a toolkit for prototyping customisable virtual company inhabited by graphically embodied artificial employees carrying on exactly specified business-processes. The toolkit will also offer some analytical tools.Specifications of business-processes are often given in some diagrams or "condition-action" natural sentences. For the purposes of a simulation, they must be "translated" into a formal description. Because an action selection model of virtual agents can be relatively simple, we aimed at "converting" ISO 9001 documentations (which are grounds for all ISO-certified companies) [4] into hierarchical reactive if-then rules and exploiting behavioural oriented design [2]. Every particular simulation will be instantiated with attributes of virtual employees and purchase orders. As 3D visualisation is not vital, a viewer will be based on an isometric "2 1/2" D platform [1].Contribution will be twofold. First, in addition to classical diagram-based simulations and statistical analysis, evaluation of processes by means of neat visualisation will be possible. Second, the simulations will serve well for presentational and educational purposes of managers.