Heuristics for expertise transfer: an implementation of a dialog manager for knowledge acquisition

Abstract

One of the most difficult and time-consuming activities in constructing an expert system is the process of knowledge acquisition. Our objectives are to identify a set of heuristics for expertise transfer and modeling based on our experience in knowledge acquisition for expert systems, and to formalize this knowledge as rules. Aquinas, a knowledge-acquisition workbench, contains tools that interview experts; analyse, test, and refine knowledge; and generate knowledge bases for expert system shells. A set of heuristics for knowledge acquisition has been defined and incorporated in the Dialog Manager sybsystem of Aquinas to provide guidance in the knowledge acquisition process to domain experts and knowledge engineers. The implementation of the Dialog Manager is described, and an example transcript shows the interaction of Aquinas, the Dialog Manager, and the expert. A preliminary classification for knowledge acquisition heuristics is proposed. Finally, issues in formalizing strategies for knowledge acquisition and a plan for future research are presented.