| This research tested a multiagent system approach to managing complex business processes and developing strategies to handle exceptions (i.e., role commitment violations) among software agents that manage a global telecommunication network model. Automated management of complex business processes—such as telecommunication networks and air traffic control systems—requires embedded computer software programs that coordinate individual functions to achieve the goal of the whole system. Automated software systems that rely on design-time assumptions to manage open business processes (characterized by nonroutine tasks in unpredictable environments) are bound to fail when design-time assumptions fail during business operations.; The study employed a quasi-experimental research method to test the hypothesis that collaborative agents with exception-handling capabilities will improve operational effectiveness of a global telecommunication network model. Results led to a rejection of the null hypothesis, which predicted that the citizen agent strategy would not reduce the time to restore a customer network connection compared to the survivalist strategy.; The demonstrated methodology can be used to resolve unforeseen operational problems in a variety of complex business processes such as network management, flight path rescheduling, and end-to-end web services. |
