Ontological analysis of means-end links

The i* community has raised several main dialects and dozens of variations in the definition of the i* language. Differences may be found related not just to the representation of new concepts but to the very core of the i* language. In previous work we have tackled this issue mainly from a syntactic point of view, using metamodels and syntactic-based model interoperability frameworks. In this paper, we go one step beyond and consider the use of foundational ontologies in general, and UFO in particular, as a way to clarify the meaning of core i* constructs and as the basis to propose a normative definition. We focus here on one of the most characteristics i* constructs, namely means-end links.Postprint (published version

Operational Semantics of Goal Models in Adaptive Agents

Several agent-oriented software engineering methodologies address the emerging challenges posed by the increasing need of adaptive software. A common denominator of such methodologies is the paramount importance of the concept of goal model in order to understand the requirements of a software system. Goal models consist of goal graphs representing AND/OR-decomposition of abstract goals down to operationalisable leaf-level goals. Goal models are used primarily in the earlier phases of software engineering, for social modelling, requirements elicitation and analysis, to concretise abstract objectives, to detail them and to capture alternatives for their satisfaction. Although various agent programming languages incorporate the notion of (leaf-level) goal as a language construct