ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews the ways through which the agent paradigm has been used to address similar challenges in construction e-business applications. It starts with background information in the domain and proceeds to describe classical agent-centered models that were used to develop APRON, a construction e-business prototype. The chapter identifies the main drawbacks of the agent-centered approach and demonstrates how the organisational metaphor can be used to address these limitations providing an exemplary procurement scenario. This culminates into a discussion on the need for an agent-centric approach in the next generation of data-driven decision making tools. One aspect of the research discussed in this paper explored the use of the organisational metaphor to encapsulate macro concepts in the design of MAS for deploying applications that are more open and dynamic. There has been a growing interest among researchers in agent-oriented software engineering in developing methodologies for modelling the organisational abstractions.
