When to use a multi agent system?

The decision of which development approach to adopt (e.g. traditional, object oriented, agent oriented) is often taken after identifying the specific features of the problem. If agent oriented software engineering (AOSE) is to be taken seriously as a software engineering paradigm, then a clearly identifiable set of criteria of when to apply it, as distinguished from other alternatives such as object-oriented practices, is necessary. The paper is part of an effort to determine when is best to adopt a Multi Agent System approach, identifying a number of critical factors to include in a decision framework.