Optimizing information systems by realizing the autonomy around business

With ever increasing complexity of software systems, it is now more evident than ever that a fundamental change in software engineering practices is required. In this paper we discuss the nature of change and its implications. The notion of passive autonomy is introduced as a reference to the relative autonomy of business entities, and we claim that realizing the passive autonomy in information systems would results in systems far more adaptable and aligned with business' needs. In order to realize this autonomy, theuse of autonomous agents as representing real world autonomous entities is suggested. After pointing out the shortcomings of current agent based architectures, a new architecture is proposed, based on indirect, multilateral negotiation. The suitability of this architecture is demonstrated in a simple case of beer game and it is shown that the bullwhip effect is remedied to some extent using this new architectural approach.