The thesis is written in relation with the research at the Enterprise Integration Laboratory of the University of Toronto. This research is supported, in part, by the Manufacturing Research Corporation of Ontario, Natural Science and Engineering Research Council, Digital Equipment Corp., Mitel Corp., Micro Electronics and Computer Research Corp., Spar Aerospace, Carnegie Group, and Quintus Corp.
I would like to thank: Professor Mark S. Fox for letting me come to EIL to write this thesis, Mihai Barbuceanu for much guidance and good support through the work, Professor Olav Solem for important advice from the Norwegian side, the EIL staff and students for providing a friendly and helpful work environment, and of course friends and family, and particularly Marian, for uttering magically motivating words at the right moments.