Modeling expert knowledge

The main difficulties in knowledge acquisition from domain experts stem from the variety of forms of knowledge, the various representations of knowledge, and the problems in making these explicit and accessible. There is, at present, no systematic overall methodological framework for knowledge acquisition to guide the organization and arrangement of the appropriate application of the many manual and automated techniques and methods used for knowledge acquisition. In considering these problems it is appropriate to draw on studies in cognitive science and associated disciplines to examine the models of the expert and the demands and goals of the task. This paper develops the modeling processes involved from the perspective of the expert trying to communicate his view of a target system and transfer it into computer implementable form. It identifies the distinct processes of elicitation, analysis and implementation, the knowledge representations of the intermediate knowledge bases which can be used to help the expert review and refine his conceptual model, and the computer knowledge bases which may be unrecognizable by the expert as related to his developing models.