Towards effective management of expert system projects

Abstract

Based on the development of PRXDM, an expert system for the fault diagnosis of the PRX/A electronic telephone exchange, a development life-cycle for expert system development is proposed. Seven phases are identified: domain definition, general design, detailed design, prototype development, integration, field testing, and operation. Provision is made for the extensive iteration and incrementation that is an essential part of all expert system development. A framework for testing. verifying, and validating expert systems is presented, and relevant metrics that could be collected in each phase of development are suggested.<>