A Method for Identifying Objectives and Metrics of Agent-based Simulation Studies.

Agent-Based Modeling and Simulation (ABMS) is a promising approach for effectively analyzing, and understanding complex systems. To date, only few methodological approaches have been proposed in order to design credible and correct simulation studies. Each of them commits the identification of objectives and metrics of the simulation study to the expertise of the designer. In this paper, we propose a GQM-based heuristic for overcoming the lack of appropriate guidelines able to lead designers in properly capturing and representing the simulation objectives and metrics. Such a heuristic exploits the power of an ontological representation of the problem domain to highlight key elements that guide the identification of simulation goals and metrics.