International Journal of Software Engineering & Applications (IJSEA), Vol.4, No.4, July 2013 DOI : 10.5121/ijsea.2013.4401 1 DESIGN OF A MULTI-AGENT SYSTEM ARCHITECTURE FOR THE SCRUM METHODOLOGY Vishwaduthsingh Gunga 1 , Somveer Kishnah 2 and Sameerchand Pudaruth 3 1 TNT Express ICS (Mauritius) ashvin.gunga@gmail.com 2 University of Mauritius s.kishnah@uom.ac.mu 3 University of Mauritius s.pudaruth@uom.ac.mu ABSTRACT The objective of this paper is to design a multi-agent system architecture for the Scrum methodology. Scrum is an iterative, incremental framework for software development which is flexible, adaptable and highly productive. An agent is a system situated within and a part of an environment that senses the environment and acts on it, over time, in pursuit of its own agenda and so as to effect what it senses in the future (Franklin and Graesser, 1996). To our knowledge, this is first attempt to include software agents in the Scrum framework. Furthermore, our design covers all the stages of software development. Alternative approaches were only restricted to the analysis and design phases. This Multi-Agent System (MAS) Architecture for Scrum acts as a design blueprint and a baseline architecture that can be realised into a physical implementation by using an appropriate agent development framework. The development of an experimental prototype for the proposed MAS Architecture is in progress. It is expected that this tool will provide support to the development team who will no longer be expected to report, update and manage non-core activities daily. KEYWORDS Multi-agents systems, Scrum framework, Agile teams, Software development 1. INTRODUCTION Software development organisations are facing increasingly pressure to deliver software on time and within budget. Indeed they are looking for agile and efficient methods to develop software due to rapid and often unexpected changes in the business environment (Ionel, 2008). Users’ and customers’ participation throughout the software development cycl e have become the norm rather than a luxury. There is no choice here. Either they adapt or they perish. Stakeholders often have changing needs which results in highly volatile requirements. Furthermore, software applications are getting more and more complex. The client’s desire to have early views of the software and maximum added value is minimal time cannot be ignored. The traditional way of building software is a sequential life cycle. It consists of several phases such as gathering requirements, analysis, design, coding, testing, evaluation and maintenance. The traditional software development methodologies such as the Waterfall Model, the V-Model and the Rational Unified Process (RUP) Model are often associated with common challenges and obstacles leading to unnecessary project delays, overspending or simple total failure. Despite the fact that these methodologies have been used extensively for many years, these models do not