[Modeling] agents vs actors

[Vivek Kumar Singh]

Hello all,


I'm a student of Mtech ICT, DA-IICT, india. I'm working on modelling of 
a project on agents. But I'm finding it very diffiult to categorize my 
agents as either actors or use cases. According to books on UML 
modeling, and actor is an external entity interacting with our system. 
If I consider this then agents can't be actors. But also it is said 
that actor can initiate processes (use cases). So according to this, my 
agents become actors. 

My project idea is to develop intelligent agents for every student in 
institution and also to have intelligent library agents. Then students 
can just order their agents to search for a book on a particular topic. 
The agents who will be knowing about his master's interests and 
knowledge level and will intelligently search for most suitable book 
for his master from a big list of books. The library will also have 
intelligents on particular subjects. The project also have many adjunct 
features.

But the problem is identifying agents as actors or use cases. I've seen 
extended form of UML for this, but what can be done with UML's present 
form and Rational rose. Kindly give suggestions.

With regards,
Vivek Kumar Singh



Vivek Kumar Singh
Mtech ICT, DA-IICT
Gandhinagar 
MOB : 09426374152
http://intranet.da-iict.org