Article ID: | iaor20012280 |
Country: | Netherlands |
Volume: | 68 |
Issue: | 2 |
Start Page Number: | 185 |
End Page Number: | 197 |
Publication Date: | Jan 2000 |
Journal: | International Journal of Production Economics |
Authors: | Yan Yuhong, Kuphal Torsten, Bode Jurgen |
Keywords: | multi-agent systems |
Global markets often require the coordination of firms across the world to gain maximum competence. The organization structure and the management of a firm tend to be project-oriented, and members of a project team are distributed throughout a network. In this paper, we use multi-agent systems as a technique to support project management in a distributed environment. Activity agents and resource agents represent activities and resources in a project. Service agents are automated experts for special project management tasks. This paper presents methods to schedule activities and resolve resource conflict by message exchanging and negotiation among agents. Finally, a prototype of project management tool is implemented, which uses a network of agents to provide services to team members distributed throughout the Internet.