A Cross-Platform Architecture with Intelligent Agents for Dynamic Processes and Services Composition

Abstract

To meet business demands, enterprise software systems are required to be more dynamic, flexible and adaptive. Business processes must often be context-aware. Things get complicated when enterprise software systems, after a decade of evolution, comprise heterogeneous platforms and different technological stacks. This chapter presents the design and implementation of a cross-platform architecture with intelligent agents for dynamic business rules, process flows and services composition. The architecture includes an Enterprise Service Bus for service integration. Service agents are used to handle services. A Central Intelligent Agent that contains a Prolog-style rule-based engine is designed to execute business rules and processes. These agents are implemented in both Java and COBOL. Business process flows are completely rule- and context-driven. The services and components for the business processes are dynamically constructed. The proposed architecture and programming model enables fast prototyping and rapid development in an agile development process across different platforms.