Knowledge acquisition and integration tools aiming to support managerial planning in Greek SMEs

Most existing expert systems are defined in structured task domains. However, many real-life decision tasks are novel, unstructured and consequential. To support these tasks, expert systems are needed which provide an integrated environment capable of capturing new knowledge by updating the existing knowledge base. This paper describes the incremental development process of an expert system, from the initial gathering of data up to the development of knowledge acquisition tools and knowledge integration methodologies. The expert system developed addresses managerial planning tasks of Greek small-to-medium sized enterprises (SMEs). The manager sets values for parameters specifying environmental and company characteristics. The expert system responds with suggestions on feasible tactics, objectives and strategies. To cope with the changes of planning situations and also to improve the integrity of the knowledge base as the manager gains experience, knowledge acquisition tools have been introduced. These knowledge acquisition tools, which are manipulated directly by the manager, provide the system with additional knowledge and validate the knowledge already embedded in the knowledge base.