Over the past decade, it has become clear that one should go beyond the level of formalisms and programming constructs to understand and analyze expert systems. I discuss the idea of inference structures such as heuristic classification (Clancey 1985), the distinction between deep and surface knowledge (Steels 1984), the notion of problem-solving methods and domain knowledge filling roles required by the methods (McDermott 1988), and the idea of generic tasks and task-specific architectures (Chandrasekaran 1983). Such a synthesis is presented here in the form of a componential framework. The framework stresses modularity and consideration of the pragmatic constraints of the domain. A major question with knowledge engineering is (or should be) that given a particular task, how do we go about solving it using expert system techniques.

The Workshop on Applications of Ontologies and Problem-Solving Methods (PSMs), held in conjunction with the Thirteenth Biennial European Conference on Artificial Intelligence (ECAI '98), was held on 24 to 25 August 1998. Twenty-six people participated, and 16 papers were presented. Participants included scientists and practitioners from both the ontology and PSM communities. The first day was devoted to paper presentations and discussions. The second (half) day, a joint session was held with two other workshops: (1) Building, Maintaining, and Using Organizational Memories and (2) Intelligent Information Integration.

Twenty-six people participated, and 16 papers were presented. The first day was devoted to paper presentations and discussions. The second (half) day, a joint session was held with two other workshops: (1) Building, Maintaining, and Using Organizational Memories and (2) Intelligent Information Integration. The reason for the joint session was that in all three workshops, ontologies play a prominent role, and the goal was to bring together researchers working on related issues in different communities.

The Workshop on Applications of Ontologies and Problem-Solving Methods (PSMs), held in conjunction with the Thirteenth Biennial European Conference on Artificial Intelligence (ECAI-98), was held on 24 to 25 August 1998. Twenty-six people participated, and 16 papers were presented. Participants included scientists and practitioners from both the ontology and PSM communities. The first day was devoted to paper presentations and discussions. The second (half) day, a joint session was held with two other workshops: (1) Building, Maintaining, and Using Organizational Memories and (2) Intelligent Information Integration. The reason for the joint session was that in all three workshops, ontologies play a prominent role, and the goal was to bring together researchers working on related issues in different communities. The workshop ended with a discussion about the added value of a combined ontologies-PSM workshop compared to separate workshops.

It (McDermott 1988), and the idea of generic also helps to explicitly focus on how to go tasks and task-specific architectures (Chandrasekaran from the knowledge level to the symbol or 1983). These various proposals are program level. I call this in-between level the obviously related to each other, which makes knowledge-use level. At the knowledge-use it desirable to construct a synthesis that combines level, we focus on issues such as how the their strengths. Such a synthesis is presented overall task will be decomposed into manageable here in the form of a componential subtasks, what ordering will be imposed framework. The framework stresses modularity on the tasks, what kind of access to knowledge and consideration of the pragmatic constraints will be needed (and, consequently, what of the domain.

In Marcus, S., (Ed.), Automating Knowledge Acquisition for Knowledge Based Systems, chapter 8, pages 120-146. Boston: Kluwer Academic Publishers

"Problem-solving methods using some sort of heurstically guided search process have been the subject of much research in Artificial Intelligence. This paper groups these problem-solving methods under three major headings: the State-Space Approach, the Problem-Reduction Approach and the Formal-Logic Approach." New York: McGraw-Hill.