Roles of Knowledge Engineers and Their Relationship to Systems Analysts

Abstract

Knowledge engineers are essential to the development of expert systems. However, the roles knowledge engineers are expected to play during knowledge acquisition is not well defined. In addition, much of the literature dealing with knowledge engineers' skills and roles is normative in nature, further adding to the lack of clear definition. The research reported in this paper attempts to empirically develop a clear definition of the roles of a knowledge engineer and to compare and contrast it with that of a systems analyst in the Information Systems environment. A survey was conducted that examines several dimensions of roles knowledge engineers are expected to play during knowledge acquisition and compares these results with similar research that has dealt with systems analysts. Appropriate conclusions, directions for research, and implications for organizations conclude the paper.