Transcript The Primacy of Process Architetcure

Supporting the Requirement
for Flexibility in Automated
Business Processes using
Intelligent Agents
Stewart Green
University of the West of England
Presentation Structure
Purpose
Intelligent agent
Multi agent community
Example: ADEPT
Example: ADEPT support for business process
management
Flexibility using intelligent agents
Advantages and disadvantages of the agent approach
Discussion questions
References
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2005
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Purpose
Introduce intelligent agents (IA)
Lead into a discussion of the potential
for intelligent agents to support
flexibility in business process
management systems (BPMS)
Explore the suitability of the IA
approach as a topic for the next BPMDS
workshop
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2005
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Intelligent Agent (1)
“An agent is a computer system that is
situated in some environment, and that is
capable of autonomous action in this
environment in order to meet its design
objectives” (Wooldridge, 2002)
“The key problem facing an agent is that of
deciding which of its actions it should perform
in order to best satisfy its design objectives”
(Wooldridge, 2002)
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Intelligent Agent (2) (Russell
and Norvig, 2003)
State
How the world
evolves
What my actions
do
What it will be
like if I do action
A
Utility
How happy
(utility) I will be
in such state
Agent
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What the world
is like now
What action
should I do now
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Sensors
Environment
Actuators
5
Multi Agent Community (1)
“Multi agent systems…consist of a number of agents,
which interact with each other, typically by
exchanging messages through some computer
network infrastructure” (Wooldridge, 2002)
“In the most general case, the agents in a multi
agent system will be representing or acting on behalf
of users or owners with very different goals and
motivations” (Wooldridge, 2002)
Agents will also be linked by a variety of
relationships, e.g. one agent may be the boss of
another
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Multi Agent Community (2)
Agents may be required to:




Solve problems
Plan
Mutually cooperate
Mutually negotiate
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Example: ADEPT (1)
ADEPT: Advanced Decision Environment for
Process Tasks
“the business process is viewed as a
collection of autonomous problem solving
entities [agents] that negotiate with one
another and come to mutually acceptable
agreements that coordinate their
independent sub-activities” (Jennings et al.,
2000)
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2005
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Example: ADEPT (2)
At a high-level ADEPT provides:




“a flexible and high level means of specifying
services that gives the agents sufficient freedom
to take alternative paths at runtime”
“a fast and efficient means of sharing information
between agents with different data models”
“negotiation strategies and tactics that can be
tailored to the provisioning task at hand”
“flexible mechanisms for scheduling and
rescheduling problem-solving resources” (Jennings
et al., 2000)
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2005
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Example: ADEPT (3): Agent
Architecture
Service
execution
Models of self
and
acquaintances:
Service
descriptions
Situation
assessment
Service Level
Agreements
Communication
Other
agents
Negotiation
histories, etc
Interaction
management
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2005
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Example: ADEPT Supports
BPM (1)
ADEPT was used to create a prototype to support the
British Telecommunication plc process of providing a
quote to a customer for installing a network to
deliver a specified type of telecommunications service
This process involves 6 major business units, e.g. the
Customer Services Division and the Network Design
Division
Each business unit carries out process activities like
capturing the details of customers and their
requirements, designing networks, and costing
networks
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Example: ADEPT Supports
BPM (2)
Design the agent system

Map processes to agents
 One agent for each business unit
 Individuals modelled as agent tasks

Identify peer and subordinate agents
 Survey Team agent is subordinate to Network Design agent
 All other agents are peers

Determine services provided by each agent
 E.g. Customer Handling agent offers Provide_Customer_Quote service

Allocate tasks to support provisioning of services
 E.g. Provide_Customer_Quote has tasks, e.g.:
 Capture customer details
 Capture customer requirements
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Example: ADEPT supports
BPM (3)
Implement the agent system

Specify services using Service Description Language (name,
inputs, outputs, guard, and body for each service; and body
allows services and tasks to be specified in sequence or in
parallel (optional or mandatory))
Provide service

Agents use a communication protocol to negotiate with one
another to provide services

The vehicle for negotiation is the Service Level Agreement
(SLA); it records, e.g., agreed cost of service, quality of service,
penalty for service failure…

E.g. The BT Customer Handling agent may negotiate with 3
external organisation Customer Vetting agents to obtain the
best deal (w.r.t. time, cost,penalty) for vetting a customer
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Flexibility Using ADEPT Agents
Communication failure

If information sent between agents becomes corrupted, one
agent detects and informs the other, which resends the
message
Functional failure

If a single invocation of a task fails, the owning agent
selects “another free and functionally equivalent resource
(task), and invokes it”
Resource failure

If a resource problem occurs, e.g. someone is ill, the owning
agent tries to reschedule tasks assigned to that resource
Service exception

If an agreed SLA is in danger of being violated, the owning
agent attempts to renegotiate the SLA
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Advantages of the Agent
Approach
Advantages (claimed): offers better support for:
 “Managing business process enactment in an environment in
which resources fluctuate at runtime”
 “Handling exceptions in a context-dependent manner”
 “Provisioning problem solving resources according to
prevailing circumstances”
 “Allowing loose coupling between interorganisational
business activities”
 “Enabling different parts of an organisation (and different
organisations) to retain autonomy of information and
control”
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Disadvantages of the Agent
Approach
Disadvantages (identified to date)


It is “more difficult to obtain a coherent view of
the entire business process, since its state is now
distributed”
There is a “greater chance that the business
process will fail to meet any overarching
constraints placed upon its operation…because the
business process is constructed through dynamic,
on-the-fly agreements, rather than through preset
routes”
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Discussion Questions
Which application domains may be particularly liable
to benefit from a multi agent approach to support for
BPM? Is supply chain management one of them?
Can all the problems recognised so far be resolved
sufficiently to allow the approach to be viable?
Are there other significant problems with this
approach?
Will the multi agent approach prove to be cost
effective?
Who should be in charge, the agent or the human it
represents? How is the border line determined?
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References
An Introduction to Multi Agent Systems, Wooldridge,
M., John Wiley, 2002
Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach, Russell, S.,
and Norvig, P., 2nd edition, Prentice Hall, 2003
Autonomous Agents for Business Process
Management, Jennings, N. et al., Applied Artificial
Intelligence, 14, pp 145 – 189, 2000
Implementing a Business Process Management
System Using Adept: A Real-World Case Study,
Jennings, N. et al. AAI, 14, pp 421 – 463, 2000
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