The Contribution of Systems Ideas during the Process of Knowledge Elicitation

Abstract

The origin of this paper lies in an earlier study that was concerned with investigating the general problems of designing expert systems (West, 1987). Research revealed that many commentators draw attention to the process of knowledge elicitation (KE), which is referred to as a “bottleneck” of expert system design and an area which merits further research. This provided the basis for research which has now developed into two phases: one which concentrates upon identifying the problems of current KE techniques, and the second which is concerned with the development of an expert system model based upon the knowledge gained from a re-evaluation of the practice of “expertise” (Fig. 2). This paper is devoted to one part of the research, namely, the exploration of systems ideas as a potential contribution to the process of KE.