From knowledge based software engineering to knowware based software engineering

The first part of this paper reviews our efforts on knowledge-based software engineering, namely PROMIS, started from 1990s. The key point of PROMIS is to generate applications automatically based on domain knowledge as well as software knowledge. That is featured by separating the development of domain knowledge from the development of software. But in PROMIS, we did not find an appropriate representation for the domain knowledge. Fortunately, in our recent work, we found such a carrier for knowledge modules, i.e. knowware. Knowware is a commercialized form of domain knowledge. This paper briefly introduces the basic definitions of knowware, knowledge middleware and knowware engineering. Three life circle models of knowware engineering and the design of corresponding knowware implementations are given. Finally we discuss application system automatic generation and domain knowledge modeling on the J2EE platform, which combines the techniques of PROMIS, knowware and J2EE, and the development and deployment framework, i.e. PROMIS/KW＊＊.     

Frame-based representation of philosophical systems using a knowledge engineering tool

This article addresses the methodological problem of the non-linear representation of philosophical systems in a computerized knowledge base. It is a problem of knowledge representation as defined in the field of artificial intelligence. Instead of a purely theoretical discussion of the issue, we present selected results of a practical experiment which has in itself some theoretical significance. We show how one can represent different philosophies using CODE, a knowledge engineering system developed by artificial intelligence researchers. The hypothesis is that such a computer based representation of philosophical systems can give insight into their conceptual structure. We argue that computer aided text analysis can apply knowledge representation tools and techniques developed in artificial intelligence and we estimate how philosophers as well as knowledge engineers could gain from this cross-fertilization. This paper should be considered as an experiment report on the use of knowledge representation techniques in computer aided text analysis. It is part of a much broader project on the representation of conceptual structures in an expert system. However, we intentionally avoided technical issues related to either Computer Science or History of Philosophy to focus on the benefit to enhance traditional humanistic studies with tools and methods developed in AI on the one hand and the need to develop more appropriate tools on the other. Gilbert Boss is professor of Philosophy at Université Laval, Québec. He is the author of several books, including Les machines à penser. L'homme et l'ordinateur,Zurich: Grand Midi, 1987, and John Stuart Mill. Induction et utilité,Paris: PUF, 1990. His main fields of research are modern philosophy, philosophy of culture, philosophical discourse and systems, artificial intelligence. Maryvonne Longeart is professor of Computer Science at UQAH, Hull, Québec. Her research interests include object oriented design methodologies and knowledge representation. She received a PhD in Philosophy from the University of Ottawa in 1978 and a BSc in computer science in 1987. She contributed to the Encyclopédie philosophique universelle,PUF, 1992 and published several papers on the representation of complex conceptual systems.Douglas Skuce is professor of computer science at the University of Ottawa. He has worked in the area of knowledge engineering since his PhD (McGill, 1977). During 1978-present he has been developing the CODE system for various applications, including terminology and software development. Currently, his interests include designing ontologies for knowledge exchange and coupling large corpora to systems such as CODE.     

Triangulation as a basis for knowledge discovery in software engineering

Everyone agrees that reliable empirical “facts” must be derived from a series of investigations. However, the question of what is an appropriate framework for this series is an unresolved issue. Other articles in this issue present replication as the basis for this framework (Shull FJ, Carver JC, Vegas S, Juristo N (2008) The role of replications in Empirical Software Engineering, J Empir Softw Eng (in press)); however, alternatives exist! This brief note argues triangulation should be considered as the basis for this knowledge discovery (from empirical evaluation) strategy.

Expert knowledge acquisition and the unwilling expert: a knowledge engineering perspective

Expert systems are an evolving technology with the potential to make human expertise widely and cheaply available. The literature describing the development of expert systems generally assumes that experts willingly give up their knowledge. This is unrealistic and may be a reason why most expert system projects fail. This paper explores the problem of unwilling experts from the perspective of a knowledge engineer building an expert system. The link between knowledge and organizational power is established and human motivation theories are discussed. Finally, a new motivational approach is introduced to help the knowledge engineer deal with unwilling experts.     

A frame-based knowledge software tool for developing interactive robots

A knowledge-based software tool for developing interactive robot applications, called SPAK, has been developed. The “world” of interest is represented in a SPAK knowledge base by using a frame knowledge technique. This technique is chosen because it can represent the world meaningfully and naturally. Relationships among frames, which represent things in the world, and actions to be taken when certain things occur can be specified. In action, SPAK perceives changes in the environment, updates the knowledge base if needed, and generates output actions according to the knowledge contents. To support robotic applications, extensions to the conventional frame model are proposed. Various robotic applications can run cooperatively on top of SPAK. Each can easily make use of the knowledge available, and share its knowledge with others. A SPAK knowledge editor allows simple and intuitive development and modification of robot applications. To demonstrate these benefits, a prototype system and a sample robot application are developed. A multiagent technique is employed to combine various robotic components, both hardware and software, together. A sample dialogue manager for managing interactions with humans runs as an application on SPAK.     

结合Web背景知识的图像语义标注

针对基于内容的图像语义标注方法中,相同或相近视觉特征对应语义可能不同的情况,提出了一个结合Web背景知识的图像语义关联模型,利用从Web页面中提取的与图像相关的属性,计算Web图像与标注关键词间的语义相关性,确定待标注Web图像的语义,实验表明该方法具有较好的性能。     

A software tool for top-down programming

Top-down design and programming methods have become well established in both commercial and academic environments. However, a programmer using such methods faces a number of organizational difficulties. This paper describes a software tool, written in Pascal, which eliminates these difficulties. It allows a programmer to interactively develop programs in a top-down fashion.     

Design and application of a new knowledge engineering tool for solving real-world problems

The results of a broader cognitive research on an intelligent knowledge engineering program environment are described. This intelligent programming tool features an open architecture, modularity and an idea to use multistrategy learning, multistrategy knowledge representation and integration of various schemes of knowledge processing in a single inferential process. Some selected applications of the developed tool, carefully examined at various levels, are briefly dealt with.     

A requirements engineering process for control engineering software

This paper presents a novel approach for the specification of control engineering software. The proposal is based on software engineering techniques which have improved the performance and quality of software processes. Some of the best practices for the building of software products are included. An example of the proposal is given for the requirements specification of the 1992 ACC robust control benchmark.     

Toward data mining engineering: A software engineering approach

The number, variety and complexity of projects involving data mining or knowledge discovery in databases activities have increased just lately at such a pace that aspects related to their development process need to be standardized for results to be integrated, reused and interchanged in the future. Data mining projects are quickly becoming engineering projects, and current standard processes, like CRISP-DM, need to be revisited to incorporate this engineering viewpoint. This is the central motivation of this paper that makes the point that experience gained about the software development process over almost 40 years could be reused and integrated to improve data mining processes. Consequently, this paper proposes to reuse ideas and concepts underlying the IEEE Std 1074 and ISO 12207 software engineering model processes to redefine and add to the CRISP-DM process and make it a data mining engineering standard.     

A social software/Web 2.0 approach to collaborative knowledge engineering

Expert systems have traditionally captured the explicit knowledge of a single expert or source of expertise in order to automatically provide conclusions or classifications within a narrow problem domain. This is in stark contrast to social software which enables knowledge communities to share implicit knowledge of a more practical or experiential nature to inform individuals and groups to arrive at their own conclusions. Specialists are often needed to elicit and encode the knowledge in the case of expert systems, whereas one of the (claimed) hallmarks of social software and the Web 2.0 trend, such as Wikis and Blogs, is that everyone, anywhere can chose to contribute input. This openness in authoring and sharing content, however, tends to produce unstructured knowledge that is difficult to execute, reason over or automatically validate. This also poses limitations for its reuse. To facilitate the capture of knowledge-in-action which spans both explicit and tacit knowledge types, a knowledge engineering approach which offers Wiki-style collaboration is introduced. The approach extends a combined rule and case-based knowledge acquisition technique known as Multiple Classification Ripple Down Rules to allow multiple users to collaboratively view, define and refine a knowledge base over time and space.     

Automatic refinement of knowledge bases with fuzzy rules

The knowledge-acquisition bottleneck obstructs the development of expert systems. Refinement of existing knowledge bases is a subproblem of the knowledge-acquisition problem. The paper presents a HEuristic REfinement System (HERES), which refines rules with mixed fuzzy and nonfuzzy concepts represented in a variant of the rule representation language Z-II automatically. HERES employs heuristics and analytical methods to guide its generation of plausible refinements. The functionality and effectiveness of HERES are verified through various case studies. It has been verified that HERES can successfully refine knowledge bases. The refinement methods can handle imprecise and uncertain examples and generate approximate rules. In this aspect, they are better than other famous learning algorithms such as ID3^15–18, AQ11, and INDUCE^{14, 19, 20} because HERES' methods are currently unique in processing inexact examples and creating approximate rules.     

Wiki as a corporate learning tool: case study for software development company

In our study, we attempted to further investigate how Web 2.0 technologies influence workplace learning. Our particular interest was on using Wiki as a tool for corporate exchange of knowledge with the focus on informal learning. In this study, we collaborated with a multinational software development company that uses Wiki as a corporate tool since 2001. For our research, we used three different sources for acquisition of data. Primarily, we did an interview with top management. Next we acquired the data on usage statistics from the company Wiki. And finally we distributed a questionnaire in order to acquire users' feedback. Analysis provided many interesting results. One of the main conclusions is that Wiki is successfully used in this company, and large majority of employees finds it useful. Additionally, Wiki did aid informal learning, but there is still plenty of room for improvement.     

GASepo-a software solution for quantitative analysis of digital images in Epo doping control

A software has been developed that is aimed at quantitative analysis of images acquired by isoelectric focusing and double blotting procedures used for recombinant erythropoietin doping control. It represents a unified and easy-to-use tool for Epo doping experts in WADA accredited laboratories. It is based on image segmentation philosophy that enables identification of individual bands whose characteristics are needed for evaluation of the Epo doping positivity criteria. Several modules implemented in the GASepo software include an original know how, in particular, the method of robust calculation of the cut-off line, band segmentation and classification algorithms. GASepo is being used in several doping control laboratories worldwide.     

Development of a team measure for tacit knowledge in software development teams

In this paper we operationally define and measure tacit knowledge at the team-level in the software development domain. Through a series of three empirical studies we developed and validated the team tacit knowledge measure (TTKM) for software developers. In the first study, initial scale items were developed using the repertory grid technique and content analysis. In Study 2, supplied repertory grids were administered to novices and experts to establish differential items, and Study 3 validated the TTKM on a sample of 48 industrial software development teams. In developing the TTKM we explored the relationships between tacit knowledge, explicit job knowledge and social interaction and their effect on team performance as measured by efficiency and effectiveness. In addition we assess the implications for managing software development teams and increasing team performance through social interaction.     

mwKAT: A meta-tool-generated knowledge acquisition tool for multimedia workstations development

mwKAT is an interactive knowledge acquisition tool for acquiring domain knowledge about multimedia components. It constructs knowledge bases for a consulting system that produces the design specification for a multimedia workstation according to the user requirements.mwKAT is generated from and executed inGAS, a primitives-based generic knowledge acquisition meta-tool. It contains three acquisition primitives, namely, parameter proposing, constraint proposing, and fix proposing to construct an intermediate knowledge base represented by a dependency model. These primitives identify necessary domain knowledge and guide users to propose significant components, constraints, and fix methods into the dependency model.mwKAT also invokes knowledge verification and validation primitives to verify the completeness, consistency, compilability, and correctness of the intermediate knowledge base.     

工程应用软件开发中应注意的问题

分析了软件开发过程中存在的典型错误观点,说明了开发工程应用软件的过程管理与软件质量间存在的必然联系,指出了具有必要的管理手段并解决好软件开发中的关键问题是得到高质量软件的必要条件。提出了在工程应用软件开发过程管理中应着重从人、问题和过程这3个方面加以分析和考虑。     

BCE: a tool for software integration

The integration of software into special-purpose systems (e.g. for gene sequence analysis) can be a difficult task. We describe a general-purpose software integration tool, the BCE program, that facilitates assembly of VAX-based software into application systems and provides an easy-to-use, intuitive user interface. We describe the use of BCE to integrate a heterogeneous collection of sequence analysis tools. Many BCE design features are generally applicable and can be implemented in other language or hardware environments.