Inverse verification of problem-solving methods

Context dependency of knowledge models brings with it several problems: the unreliability of knowledge-based systems, maintenance costs and limitations on sharing and reuse. Problem-solving methods are knowledge models of the reasoning process of knowledge-based systems. In this paper, we present a method called inverse verification to deal with the context dependency of problem-solving methods. Inverse verification investigates the context dependency of a method by making underlying assumptions explicit. It uses failed proof attempts as a search method for assumptions and an analysis of these failures for constructing and refining assumptions. (C) 1998 Academic Press.