The role of functional prototyping in model validation

Summary form only given. Within the KADS framework, a model of domain expertise is built prior to system implementation. Before making important design decisions, it is necessary to check that this model correctly represents the domain and its problem solving aspects. In this paper, a framework which employs functional prototyping for validating a model of expertise is described. Before building the prototype, an object-oriented knowledge representation model is developed based on the model of expertise. This knowledge representation model provides the structure of the prototype. Since mistakes may be made in the translation from one model to another, the knowledge representation model has to be verified to ensure that it accurately depicts the information in the model of expertise. The functional prototype can then be constructed and verified. Finally, the domain experts can test out the functional prototype to see whether it accurately models the domain. This framework was applied to the summer-autumn management domain. Two important areas were prototyped: feed budgeting and production level analysis.