The Future of Software Engineering and Multi-Agent Systems

In spite of the massive research efforts by the multi-agent system community, the state of the art in multi-agent systems is insufficiently reflected in state of the practice of complex distributed systems. Triggered by this observation, leading researchers and engineers in the field came together at the AAMAS 2008 conference to discuss the future of software engineering and multi-agent systems. Technical and organizational obstacles were identified that hamper industrial adoption of multi-agent systems. Prominent obstacles include poor awareness of industrial needs, disconnection from conventional software engineering, immaturity of technology, and a research bias towards scientific challenges. To address these obstacles several opportunities were identified.