A Structured Testing Methodology for Knowledge-Based Systems

In recent years, knowledge-based software technology has proven itself to be a valuable tool for solving hitherto intractable problems. Developers of knowledge-based systems must ensure that the system will give its users accurate advice or correct solutions to their problems. Thus, knowledge-based systems must be debugged and validated just like any other piece of software. It has been found that one of the most important problems in developing knowledge-based systems is the lack of methods to verify and validate its KB. The aim of this article is to define a methodology and its supporting tool set that are used together in order to completely test knowledge-based systems. The suggested testing methodology couples different verification and validation activities that are collectively valuable in raising the level of system correctness.