A federation-agent-workflow simulation framework for virtual organisation development

Traditional information system development approaches separate the domain model from the system model and then focus on the transformation between them, They are not, however, useful in rapid development of virtual organisations. This paper proposes a simulation-based development framework for establishing such organisations. It consists of a federation-agent-workflow (FAW) model, a set of rules for establishing the mapping from the domain into the virtual organisation, a set of management services, and a macro development process. Basic elements of the model are agents, which can perform active domain behaviour, and they are organised as autonomous federations. Agents within the same federation perform relevant tasks according to an overall workflow. Domain organisation is simulated by the multi-level agents whose behaviour are driven by a nested-workflow mechanism. The framework unifies the traditional domain organisation and information system model into a virtual organisation model, and this allows users to develop intuitive virtual organisations from the viewpoint of the domain. A comparison between the framework and the traditional information system approaches shows that the framework provides a simpler development process, so it meets the needs of virtual organisations for rapid and mobile development. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.