Intelligent decision support system for COTS based software development

基于商用现货（COTS）的软件开发（CBSD）过程依赖于识别、评估和选择满足系统需求并满足利益相关者偏好的COTS产品。侧重于第二个目标的方法主要基于共识方法，其中利益相关者必须首先就解决方案评估标准及其相对重要性达成一致。然后，开发团队必须根据解决方案评估标准评估不同COTS候选者的功能，以选择最合适的COTS。然而，这种方法存在几个问题：（1）在许多情况下，不可能协调利益攸关方的关切并商定解决方案评价标准;（2）可能缺少尝试不同方案以处理利益攸关方相互冲突的偏好的手段;（3）通常不处理一个（或多个）利益攸关方在谈判过程中改变其偏好的情况;（4）利益攸关方之间的联盟形成被忽视;（5）评价过程中固有的不确定性和相互依存性有时没有得到解决;（6）以前评价过程中用于重新使用的信息储存库要么集中在一起，要么被排除在外;（7）利益攸关方具有不同重要性的情况通常被忽视。在这项研究中，我们提出了一个完全不同的方法，其中（a）不需要初步共识;（B）上述缺陷得到充分解决;（c）经验库是分散的，需要很少或根本不需要维护。多代理系统（MAS）和基于本体的知识管理（OKM）的使用是这个项目的独特之处。使用MAS实现系统提供了灵活性，可扩展性和隐藏的复杂性，从用户，并允许智能消息传递和知识级协商。OKM允许知识的动态分类和分布，适应多样化的内容，表示和个性化的风格;采用高效的检索机制;几乎不需要或不需要集中管理和维护。

Commercial Off-The-Shelf (COTS) Based Software Development (CBSD) process relies on identifying, evaluating and selecting COTS products that satisfy system requirements, and satisfy stakeholders' preferences. The methodologies that focus on the second target are mostly based on the consensus approach in which the stakeholders have to first agree on the solution evaluation criteria and their relative importance. Then, the developer team has to evaluate the functionality of different COTS candidates against the solution evaluation criteria to select the most suitable COTS. However, there are several problems with such approaches: (1) in many cases it not possible to harmonize concerns of the stakeholders and agree on the solution evaluation criteria; (2) means for trying out different scenarios to deal with conflicting stakeholders' preferences may be missing; (3) situations where one (or more) stakeholder changes his/her preferences during the negotiation process is not usually dealt with; (4) coalition formation among stakeholders is ignored; (5) uncertainty and interdependencies inherent in the evaluation process are sometimes left unaddressed; (6) repositories for reuse of information from previous evaluation processes are either centralized or left out; and (7) cases where stakeholders have differing degree of significance are usually ignored. In this research we suggest a radically different approach in which (a) initial consensus is not required; (b) the above deficiencies are fully addressed; and (c) experience repositories are decentralized and require little or no maintenance. The use of multi-agent systems (MAS) and ontology-based knowledge management (OKM) are unique points in this project. Implementing the system using MAS offers flexibility, expandability and hiding complexity from users and allows for intelligent message passing and knowledge level negotiation. OKM allows for dynamic classification and distribution of knowledge, adapting to diversified contents, representations and personalized styles; incorporates efficient retrieval mechanisms; and requires virtually less or no centralized management and maintenance.