  This paper discusses in detail important analysis and design issues emerged
during the development of an agent-based transportation e-market. This
discussion is based on concepts coming from the AMCIS methodology and the JADE
framework. The AMCIS methodology is specifically tailored to the analysis and
design of cooperative information agent-based systems, while it supports both
the levels of the individual agent structure and the agent society in the
Multi-Agents Systems (MAS) development process. According to AMCIS, MAS are
viewed as being composed of a number of autonomous cooperative agents that live
in an organized society, in which each agent plays one or more specific roles,
while their plans and interaction protocols are well defined. On the other hand
JADE is a FIPA specifications compliant agent development environment that
gives several facilities for an easy and fast implementation. Our aim is to
reveal the mapping that may exists between the basic concepts proposed by AMCIS
for agents specification and agents interactions and those provided by JADE for
agents implementation, and therefore to propose a kind of roadmap for agents
developers.
