MULTI-AUDITOR COOPERATION - A MODEL OF DISTRIBUTED REASONING

Management and analysis of complex systems frequently involves groups of managers/experts, each working on different parts of the system, co operating and coordinating among themselves to manage/analyze the syst em as a whole. We propose a distributed reasoning approach to render t his process of multi-agent cooperation more efficient and effective. W e consider, as an example of such a group process, the auditing proces s of assessing the reliability of an internal control system, where ea ch auditor makes default assumptions about parts of the system being a nalyzed by other team members. We model the coordination process using an assumption-based truth maintenance system, which explicitly repres ents such assumptions, their possible retractions on subsequent contra ry evidence, and changes in the auditor's terminal options. We show ho w the resolution of opinions among auditors can be achieved through a process of evidence sharing facilitated by the model.