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 under- standing complex systems. To date, only few method- ological approaches have been proposed in order to de- sign credible and correct simulation studies. Each of them commits the identification of objectives and met- rics of the simulation study to the expertise of the de- signer. In this paper, we propose a GQM-based heuris- tic for overcoming the lack of appropriate guidelines able to lead designers in properly capturing and representing the simulation objectives and metrics. Such a heuris- tic exploits the power of an ontological representation of the problem domain to highlight key elements that guide the identification of simulation goals and metrics.