A practical experience on reusing problem-solving methods for assessment tasks

Abstract

Problem-solving methods (PSMs) facilitate the development of knowledge-based systems (KBSs), which provide an initial scheme to model both the domain knowledge and the inference process. However, the actual benefits of reusing PSMs are still unclear because most of the specifications omit how the structure must be adapted to fit into the current problem. This article describes our experience in the development of a KBS for the selection of wastewater treatment technologies by reusing a well-known PSM from the CommonKADS library. We describe how the adaptation process was performed, which involved both the simplification of the original inference template and the inclusion of new basic inferences.