Abstract
Computer users employ a collection of software tools to support their day-to-day work. Often the software environment is dynamic with new tools being added as they become available and removed as they become obsolete or outdated. In today’s systems, the burden of coordinating the use of these disparate tools, remembering the correct sequence of commands, and incorporating new and modified programs into the daily work pattern lies with the user. This paper describes a multi-agent system, DALEKS, that assists users in utilizing diverse software tools for their everyday work. It manages work and information flow by providing a coordination layer that selects the appropriate tool(s) to use for each of the user’s tasks and automates the flow of information between them. This enables the user to be concerned more with what has to be done, rather than with the specifics of how to access tools and information. Here we describe the system architecture of DALEKS and illustrate it with an example in university course administration.