Expert Systems for Software Engineers and Managers, 1987
Chapman and Hall Advanced Industrial Technology Series

This book is written for software engineers, software project leaders, and software managers who would like to introduce a new advanced software technology, expert systems, into their product. Expert system technology brings into programming a new dimension in which "rule of thumb" or heuristic expert knowledge is encoded in the program. In contrast to conventional procedural languages {e. g. , Fortran or C}, expert systems employ high-level programming languages {Le. , expert system shells} that enable us to capture the judgmental knowledge of experts such as geologists, doctors, lawyers, bankers, or insurance underwriters. Past expert systems have been more successfully applied in the problem areas of analysis and synthesis where the boundary of lo;nowledge is well defined and where experts are available and can be identified. Early successful applications include diagnosis systems such as MYCIN, geological systems such as PROSPECTOR, or design/configu­ ration systems such as XC ON. These early expert systems were mainly applicable to scientific and engineering problems, which are not theoreti­ cally well understood in terms of decisionmaking processes by their experts and which therefore require judgmental assessment. The more recent expert systems are being applied to sophisticated synthesis problems that involve a large number of choices, such as how the elements are to be compared. These problems normally entailed a large search space and slower speed for the expert systems designed. Examples of these systems include factory scheduling applications such as ISIS, or legal reasoning applications such as TAXMAN.

1 Expert System Technology: Its Market and Trends.- Definition of Expert Systems.- Forecasts of Expert System Markets.- Experts’ Views on the Future of Expert System Technology.- Major Trends Observed.- 2 Basics of Expert System Technology.- The Ultimate Goal of Expert System Technology.- The Three Stages of Expert System Technology Growth.- The Basic Structure of Expert Systems.- 3 What Software Engineers and Managers Need to Know.- Advantages of Expert Systems over Conventional Software Programs.- Major Responsibility of Knowledge Engineers.- Development Cycles of Expert Systems.- New Skills Needed by Software Engineers.- New Knowledge Needed by Software Managers.- 4 Hardware and Software Tools Available to Software Engineers and Managers.- Computing Environment.- Programming Languages and Tools.- Considerations in Selecting Hardware and Software.- 5 Evaluation of Development Tools.- Evaluation Criteria.- Preliminary Evaluation of PC Tools.- Preliminary Review of AI Workstation Tools.- Lessons Learned.- 6 Historical Applications of Expert System Technology.- Statistics of Historical Applications.- Typical Tasks Involving Expert System Technology.- Two Case Studies of Expert System Development Cycles.- Lessons Learned.- 7 Prominent Applications to Conventional Software and Business.- Prerequisites for Successful Expert System Applications.- Major Approaches of Expert System Technology to Improvement of Conventional Software.- Application to Expert System Technology to Conventional Software Packages.- Expert System Technology and Business Applications.- 8 Proposing Expert System Projects.- Management and Human Expert Attitudes Toward Expert System Projects.- Obstacles in Initiating Expert Systems.- Who Initiates Expert System Projects.- Briefing Requirements.- Planning an Expert System Project.- Selecting Project Leaders, Knowledge Engineers, and System Programmers.- 9 Rapid Prototyping Expert Systems.- Internal Strategy.- Design Principles.- Where to Start Prototyping.- A Step-by-Step Life-Cycle Approach.- 10 Developing and Delivering Full-Scale Expert Systems.- Establishment of a System Goal.- Managing Knowledge Refinement.- Managing Expectations.- Evaluation and Validation.- Delivery, Maintenance, and Training.- Appendix A List of Commercial or Field-Tested Tools and Systems.- Appendix B List of Major Expert System Companies and Publishers.- Appendix C Glossary.- Selected Bibliography.