Expert support systems design issues

Expert support systems (ESSs) promise valuable support to decision-makers in business settings where a number of complex and interacting decisions must be accommodated. Even though the proliferation of ESSs in business has been limited, the issues involved in designing such systems need to be addressed so that development resources are well utilized and the end product is successful. This paper addresses the following questions: What are the factors that affect the successful design of an ESS? And how do these factors affect the design process? These factors are identified by considering factors that are relevant to MIS development and how they relate to the new technology of expert systems. A prototype ESS is used to illustrate the issues addressed in this paper.     

Some technical and non‐technical issues in implementing a knowledge server

Increasingly, knowledge, as well as information and data, is being transferred over the World Wide Web. There is great potential in linking traditional knowledge‐based systems (KBS) technology with the Internet because each technology can overcome limitations in the other. As a result, it might enable expert knowledge that has hitherto been confined to those who possess the correct computing platforms to be made available to small enterprises and people in developing countries. Five types of KBS–Internet integration are outlined (Intelligent Agents, Active Web Pages, Local KBS Accessing Web‐distributed Information, Web‐distributed Knowledge Bases, and Knowledge Servers). This paper discusses knowledge servers in detail. It examines the issues and problems that must be addressed if existing KBS inference software is to be integrated with the World Wide Web, and discusses, in depth, solutions as implemented in the Istar knowledge server. The paper shows how technical design and implementation decisions can be influenced, not only by the technical characteristics of the Internet, but also by a range of other, ‘softer’ issues. In particular, it shows how real life styles of WWW browsing, and a desire to make knowledge available to developing countries, influences both overall architecture and detailed implementation decisions. Early experience of actual usage shows Istar to be a highly efficient knowledge server. Directions for future research are discussed. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Organisational considerations for software reuse

Reuse is widely promoted as one of the most promising methods for increasing productivity and quality within software development. Until recently most research into strategies for systematic reuse has focused on solution of the technical issues. Now as companies (mostly IT focused) implement the strategies developed, they find there are other issues which hold back their success, somewhat unrelated to the technical solutions offered. Reuse processes are not simple technologies and methods slotted into a development, like the transition in design notation from traditional approaches to an object-;orientated method. Whereas technology changes involve retraining developers. Reuse requires the whole organisation and funding of development to be revised. If the magnitude of change involved in transitioning an IT organisation is so encompassing, where does this leave the rest of industry which is increasingly reliant on software to support their business process? This paper looks at organisational and management issues raised by the introduction of software reuse to the development process. We identify inhibitors of reuse adoption, look at causes of these and suggest possible solutions. We aim to concisely present all those non-;technical issues that should be considered when introducing a reuse program. Considered also is how these issues affect companies which have IT in only a business support capacity, making this paper relevant throughout industry.     

Nontechnical problems in knowledge engineering: Implications for project management

Building knowledge-based systems is generally seen as a technical process. While technical difficulties do arise in the course of this process, nontechnical aspects of project development can also be problematic. However, the latter may be harder for technically trained project personnel to recognize as such and solve. This paper addresses some nontechnical issues that can arise in the course of expert systems projects. Some are already well known in the expert systems world; others may not normally be thought of as issues at all, but we urge that they be considered as such. Since all such issues waste time, money, and goodwill, project personnel have reason to identify and avoid them.     

Expert systems in manufacturing. Part 2: A management framework for expert-systems innovation and technology transfer

Current approaches to expert systems technology transfer have tended to focus upon the marketing and servicing of technology capabilities and potential whilst remaining uncertain about the process factors which determine how this technology may be applied and adopted effectively. Furthermore, much of current expert systems research work and literature addresses these issues from the viewpoint of the supplier or donor whilst overlooking the importance of human and organisational perspectives which shed light on the means of delivery and take-up within the recipient organisation. The paper, the second of two that look at expert systems innovation in manufacturing, argues for greater consideration of the characteristics, processes and mechanisms of technology transfer. It defines a new conceptual basis for technology transfer which stresses a ‘needs-driven’ process of change; this highlights the importance of context as well as content in expert systems transfer and implementation. From this, a management framework is outlined and is used to rationalise the transfer problems and needs described in the first paper following a survey of 145 manufacturing users. It is also shown how this framework may be used to understand more about the multi-level and multi-dimensional needs and effects of technology induced change and therefore how it may be used to help senior management strategically plan and co-ordinate expert systems programmes in their organisations.     

A framework for understanding creativity in requirements engineering

Creativity is important in the discovery and analysis of user and business requirements to achieve innovative uses of information and communication technologies. This paper builds a theoretical framework for understanding creativity in requirements engineering. The framework provides a systematic means of understanding creativity in requirements engineering and comprises five elements (product, process, domain, people and socio-organisational context). The framework provides researchers with a sound basis for exploring how the five elements of creativity can be incorporated within RE methods and techniques to support creative requirements engineering. It provides practitioners with a systematic means of creating environments that nurture and develop creative people, cognitive and collaborative processes and products.     

Expert systems for small businesses

Small business contribute significantly to the economy. New information system technologies, like expert systems have the promise of improving the efficiency and competitiveness of small businesses. This paper reviews the issues related to application of expert systems in a small business and discusses their capabilities and limitations. The role of decision support systems and integration of DSS and expert systems as a useful tool for small businesses is also examined. Further, the issues concerning the selection of expert systems for a small business are described.     

Ethical decision making in technology development: a case study of participation in a large-scale information systems development project

Advanced systems engineering has traditionally paid little attention to ethical concerns relative to other technical and non-technical issues. This is particularly evident in systems analysis, design, and development methodologies. This paper asks if it is possible that the lack of emphasis upon ethical considerations in development methodologies can result in the failure of advanced technology development projects? In order to explore this contention, the paper sets out the findings of a case study of a large-scale advanced technology project in a multinational engineering company involving the implementation of an enterprise resource planning system. The research examined the extent to which ethical issues emerged in the project and assesses the impact of ethical considerations upon the technology development process and its outcomes. Evidence is presented which shows how ethical concerns clearly impacted upon the outcome of the project, supporting the contention that ethics was a success factor in the case presented. However, it was also clear that the kinds of ethical considerations that emerged were highly complex, and associated with an “ethics of care”. The findings suggested that researchers should examine the potential of an “ethics of care” as a way of complimenting the “ethics of rights” currently dominant within engineering ethics.     

Software methodologies for decision support

Automation of complex decision-making processes in business enterprises depends on the satisfactory solution of two major problems: the management of unreliable data and the cost-effective introduction of expert systems. This paper shows that there exist appropriate frameworks to support the solution of both problems, and suggests ways in which practical software methodologies can be developed within these frameworks. It also indicates where additional research is required.     

Service-oriented technology and management: Perspectives on research and practice for the coming decade

Service-oriented technologies and management have gained attention in the past few years, promising a way to create the basis for agility so that companies can deliver new, more flexible business processes that harness the value of the services approach from a customer’s perspective. Service-oriented approaches are used for developing software applications and software-as-a-service that can be sourced as virtual hardware resources, including on-demand and utility computing. The driving forces come from the software engineering community and the e-business community. Service-oriented architecture promotes the loose coupling of software components so that interoperability across programming languages and platforms, and dynamic choreography of business processes can be achieved. Nevertheless, one of today’s most pervasive and perplexing challenges for senior managers deals with how and when to make a commitment to the new practices. The purpose of this article is to shed light on multiple issues associated with service-oriented technologies and management by examining several interrelated questions: why is it appropriate now to study the related business problems from the point of view of services research? What new conceptual frameworks and theoretical perspectives are appropriate for studying service-oriented technologies and management? What value will a service science and business process modeling offer to the firms that adopt them? And, how can these approaches be implemented so as to address the major challenges that organizations face with technology, information and strategy? We contribute new knowledge in this area by tying the economics and information technology strategy perspectives to the semantic and design science perspectives for a broader audience. Usually the more technical perspective is offered on a standalone basis, and confined to the systems space – even when the discussion is about business processes. This article also offers insights on these issues from the multiple perspectives of industry and academic thought leaders.     

基于.NET的农业信息专家系统研究

农业信息在农业生产生活中具有极其重要的地位,因此研究一个农业信息的专家系统具有现实意义。.NET技术可以实现各种实用系统。文章使用ASP.NET技术分析设计了农业信息专家系统的部分模块.这对于农业信息专家系统具有很好的借鉴意义。     

The infusion of expert systems in banking: An exploratory study

Numerous studies can be found on expert systems (ES) as a specific IT in the literature. However, their focus has been mainly on system development from a technical perspective. Based on an empirical study on expert systems diffusion in 20 British banking organizations, this paper reports the findings from the study. The study finds that ES infusion concentrated in specific processes that require extensive knowledge in banking. There is a strong organizational perspective towards expert systems development in these banking organizations rather than the technical perspective. ES diffusion and top management commitment are closely associated. The existence of IT strategy aligned with business strategy (and/or with an A1 element within it) is not a good predictor for ES adoptions. Three cases of expert systems applications in banking are given in the paper. These results are useful for practitioners in managing their intelligent systems projects and researchers for further studies in this area.     

Implementing a fuzzy expert system for ensuring information technology supply chain

In the business environment, information technology (IT) plays an important role for firms' performance. It provides information flow that makes the supply chain more robust and resilient without undermining its efficiency. Smart systems use artificial intelligence methods for solving problems and facilitating decision‐making through rule‐based deduction. Accordingly, these systems can present specialists' skills and simulate their thinking process. The primary goal of expert systems is to implement knowledge acquisition process by converting knowledge to wisdom. This process is vital for critical decision‐making regarding important issues such as determining necessities of a particular contract. Companies use professional liability insurance of the products and services to ensure the purchasers and prevent potential losses. Although this practice is highly prevalent, there is not any particular procedure for measuring necessities of contracts. The main purpose of this paper is to design a fuzzy expert system for measuring the necessities of professional contracts regarding insurance coverage and improve the supply chain management using IT. This system can measure and report these obligations, considering specifications of each project. Taking into perspective variety of professional services/products, we consider software as a type of professional contracts, extract its important indices and give it to the system as the input. After the necessary stages, the system produces a proper response and presents the generated response to the user. The software of this expert system is web based, and there are four operating layers in its architecture. We implemented this program in MS Visual Studio Framework with C#.NET programming language. Moreover, we implemented MS SQL‐Server Database Management.     

A conceptual design aid environment for expert-database systems

With the actual penetration of expert systems into the business world, the question is, how the expert system idea can be used to enhance the existing information systems with more intelligence in usage and operation. This interest is not surprising due to the advancement of the fifth generation of computer technology, and avid interest in the field of Artificial Intelligence. Therefore design of an information system for an application becomes more complex, and the inability of the human designer to deal with it increases. For designing intelligent systems, we have to be able to forecast the behavior of the information system more precisely before implementing it, i.e. we'have to support the specification process.Clearly the technology, such as Data base systems, is leading on efficiency issues as those needed for the construction, retrieval and manipulation of large shared data base. On the other hand, the AI techniques have improved significantly with function such as deductive reasoning and natural language processing. It is important to find way to merge these technologies into one mainstream of computing. A meeting point for the two areas is the issue of conceptual knowledge modelling, so that models can be created that will define the role and the ways to use data in AI systems. In the framework of this study, one possible expert system design aid environment has been suggested to assist the designer in his work.In a conceptual modelling environment a model is given for analysing complex real world problems known as the Conceptual Knowledge Model (CKM), represented by a Graphical and a Formal Representation. The Graphical Representation consists of three graphs: Conceptual Requirement Graph, Conceptual Behavior Graph, and Conceptual Structure Graph. These graphs are developed by involving the expert during the design process. The graphs are then transformed into first-order predicate logic to represent the logical axioms of a theory, which constitutes the knowledge base of the Expert System. The model suggested here is a step towards closing the gap between the theory of the conventional data base theory and AI databases.     

Planning and Executing IT Strategy

Planning leads to effective execution of any activity, whether it's IT or any business function. Planning ensures that technology efforts are business driven, aligned with business strategies, and coordinated across the company as opposed to being done in silos (each business unit acting in a compartmentalized manner). Planning can save money by taking advantage of corporate policies and standards across the enterprise. It can also eliminate the duplication of efforts by using shared services, implementing architectural principles, and using single research groups within a firm. Further benefits of planning include directing investments in technology and people toward improving the bottom line, serving customers better, and outperforming the competition. Planning and executing IT programs requires understanding how IT functions. In this article the author show i) how leaders can align IT within the business environment ii) how easy it is to understand technology operations within a business environment, and iii) how to capitalize on the use of technology through effective planning.     

Making ERPs work: accountants and the introduction of ERP systems

In the last 10 years, the majority of large companies have attempted to install Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems, replacing functional systems with a standardised company-wide system. However, making an ERP system work, we contend, is more than an issue of technical expertise or social accommodation: it is an ongoing, dynamic interaction between the ERP system, different groups in an organisation and external groups, such as vendors, management consultants and shareholders. This paper builds this argument using the example of management accountants in the U.K. based on evidence from a survey and several case studies. Drawing on work by Scarbrough and Corbett, we apply and develop a model, the technology power loop, linking technology, the control of technology and expertise to explain issues of how ERP systems are made to work and how expert groups seek to influence this development. We show, using empirical evidence from a survey and several case studies, that the relationship of accountants and technologies such as ERPs has become increasingly intertwined, but accountants continue to use their position to reshape their professional expertise wherever possible. However, our evidence also shows that neglect in this area allows other groups to wrest control from management accountants and make ERPs work for themselves.     

Expert systems and industrial engineers: A practical guide to a successful partnership

Recent developments in the engineering technology of artificial intelligence and expert systems have generated much excitement both in the business and research environments. There are many opportunities in terms of theoretical research and practical applications. The versatility of the industrial engineering profession seems to be particularly agreeable with the vast potentials of expert systems. A guideline is presented on how industrial engineers can successfully take the lead in beneficial implementations of the emerging technology of expert systems. Suggestions are offered on problem selection, getting started, and expert systems project organization.     

Reconfigurable, component-based systems and the role of enterprise engineering concepts

General requirements of next generation enterprise systems are considered and classified. This highlights the potential importance of emerging component-based approaches that facilitate the detailed design of IT systems and their rapid implementation and ongoing development. It also highlights the need for complementary systems engineering approaches that address enterprise engineering on a broad scale, taking into account business and human aspects of large scale projects as well as technical aspects. This characterises the role that current generation enterprise engineering concepts can play in support of the conceptual design of future enterprise engineering systems and in the specification of sets of enterprise components from which large scale, change-capable enterprise systems can be constructed.     

An empirical study of the use of business expert systems

The evolution of computers from computational tools to “thinking machines” is causing businesses to evaluate their views of the computer's role. The inevitable availability of smart computers leads to questions of how and when fifth generation hardware and software will be integrated into corporate culture. Here, we present the results of a survey given to information systems managers to determine the extent of expert systems development by data processing departments and expert systems usage in organizations. The attitudes of management toward the future of expert systems are also discussed using the survey data. It was discovered that, while computer managers are receptive toward this new tool, most have no definite plans to develop expert systems in the near future. These results seem to be in conflict with other evidence about the growing numbers of expert systems in business applications. One explanation is that this new technology is part of the continuing “grass roots” movement of end-user computing.     

An abstract architecture for virtual organizations: The THOMAS approach

Today, the need for architectures and computational models for large-scale open multi-agent systems is considered to be a key issue for the success of agent technology in real-world scenarios. This paper analyzes the significant unsolved problems that must be taken into account in order to develop real, open multi-agent systems. It identifies requirements and related open issues, discusses how some of these requirements have been tackled by current technologies, and explains how the THOMAS architecture is able to give support to these open issues. This paper also describes the THOMAS abstract architecture and computational model for large-scale open multi-agent systems based on a service-oriented approach that specifically addresses the design of virtual organizations. An application example for the management of a travel agency system, which demonstrates the new features of the proposal, is also presented.