A knowledge documentation methodology for knowledge-based system development: an example in animal health management

Knowledge acquisition is one of the critical activities in developing a knowledge-based system. It includes on the one hand knowledge elicitation from different sources such as domain experts, books, maps and real-world observations, and on the other hand, a process of analysing, structuring and recording knowledge defined as knowledge documentation. Many methods have been developed to elicit knowledge, but not so many techniques are available for knowledge documentation. Those published often do not address all relevant aspects of the documentation process, or do not document all types of knowledge, for example, experts possess declarative and procedural knowledge. For constructing a knowledge-based system in the field of animal health management a documentation methodology has been developed and is reported in this article. The methodology was based on, among other things, the CommonKADS technique. It includes three subsequent phases: (1) documenting concepts and facts in hierarchies, (2) documenting separate inferences which integrate knowledge documented in hierarchies, and (3) documenting the strategy or sequence of the inferences to be made. The method supports the full pathway of the documentation process and addresses both declarative and procedural knowledge. Also, the method provides a quick insight into knowledge of a knowledge source (e.g. experts) and comprehensible transcripts for the expert. The latter facilitates the process of knowledge verification. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.