Verification and validation with ripple-down rules

✍ Scribed by Byeong Ho Kang; Windy Gambetta; Paul Compton

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 1996
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 243 KB
• Volume: 44
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1071-5819
• DOI: 10.1006/ijhc.1996.0013

✦ Synopsis

Verification to ensure a system's consistency and validation to meet the user's criteria are essential elements in developing knowledge-based systems for real world use . The normal practice is that there will be initial knowledge acquisition attempting to build a complete system which will (should) then be verified and validated . There may be a cycle through these steps till the system is complete .

Maintenance is seen as a minor problem requiring the occasional repetition of the three stage process . The implicit assumption is that an expert has complete knowledge and that by a suitable knowledge acquisition process this is acquired . In fact , it seems rather than experts are incapable of recounting how they reach a conclusion . Rather , when asked a question they justify that their conclusion is correct and their justification is tailored to the specific context of the inquiry . Experts are best at justifying why one conclusion is to be preferred over another .

This leads to a knowledge acquisition methodology , Ripple-down Rules , in which the knowledge base undergoes on-going development based on correcting errors .