The Initial Decomposition

The initial decomposition is a set of steps. Executing them correctly is not critical, since the main development strategy includes correcting assumptions from this stage of the process. Nevertheless, good work at this stage greatly facilitates the rest of the process.

1. Specify at a high level what the agent is intended to do.
2. Describe likely activities in terms of sequences of actions. These sequences are the the basis of the initial reactive plans.
3. Identify an initial list of sensory and action primitives from the previous list of actions.
4. Identify the state necessary to enable the described primitives and drives. Cluster related state elements and their dependent primitives into specifications for behaviors. This is the basis of the behavior library.
5. Identify and prioritize goals or drives that the agent may need to attend to. This describes the initial roots for the reactive plan hierarchy (described below).
6. Select a first behavior to implement.

The lists compiled during this process should be kept, since they are an important part of the documentation of the agent. The process of documenting BOD agents is described below in Section 8.