This book presents an innovative approach to verifying and validating rule-based expert systems. It features a complete set of techniques and tools that provide a more formal, objective, and automated means of carrying out verification and validation procedures. Many of the concepts behind these procedures have been adapted from conventional software, while others have required that new techniques or tools be created because of the uniqueness of rule-based expert systems. Verification and Validation of Rule-Based Expert Systems is a valuable reference for electrical engineers, software engineers, artificial intelligence experts, and computer scientists involved with object-oriented development, expert systems, and programming languages.

Introduction

3

(12)

Quality Assurance for Expert Systems

3

(1)

Background to Expert Systems

4

(3)

Conventional Software and Expert Systems

7

(2)

A Preview of the Work

9

(1)

Organization of the Book

10

(5)

The Production of Quality Software

15

(16)

Introduction

15

(1)

Definition of Quality Software

16

(1)

Attributes of Quality Software

17

(3)

Approaches to Achieving Quality Software

20

(7)

Software Engineering Methodologies

20

(2)

Software Quality Assurance

22

(2)

Independent Verification and Validation

24

(1)

Software Reviews

24

(1)

Formal Proof of Correctness

25

(1)

Quality Metrics

26

(1)

Configuration Management

26

(1)

Application of Approaches

27

(4)

Conventional Software Development

31

(22)

Introduction

31

(1)

Verification and Validation

32

(2)

Overview of Classic Life Cycle Process Model

34

(8)

Requirements Analysis and Definition Phase

34

(4)

Design Phase

38

(1)

Implementation Phase

39

(1)

Testing Phase

39

(3)

Maintenance Phase

42

(1)

Results of Usage

42

(2)

Summary of Validation in Classic Life Cycle

44

(9)

Validation Testing

44

(1)

Validation Test Cases

45

(1)

Acceptance Criteria

46

(1)

Testing Documentation

47

(1)

Revalidation During Maintenance Phase

48

(1)

Validation Tools

49

(4)

The Production of Quality Expert Systems

53

(12)

Introduction

53

(1)

Definition of Quality Expert Systems

54

(1)

Characteristics of Quality Expert Systems

55

(5)

Approaches to Achieving Quality Expert Systems

60

(5)

Expert System Development

65

(18)

Introduction

65

(1)

Verification and Validation

66

(3)

Overview of Expert System Process Models

69

(5)

Planning Phase

71

(1)

Knowledge Definition Phase

72

(1)

Knowledge Design Phase

72

(1)

Code and Checkout

73

(1)

Knowledge Verification

73

(1)

System Evaluation

74

(1)

Results of Usage

74

(1)

Summary of Validation in Expert System Development

75

(8)

Validation Testing

75

(2)

Validation Test Cases

77

(1)

Acceptance Criteria

77

(1)

Testing Documentation

78

(1)

Revalidation During Maintenance Phase

78

(1)

Validation Tools

79

(4)

Issues and Recommendations in Expert System Verification and Validation

83

(24)

Weaknesses of Current Practice

83

(2)

Insights from Past Experience

85

(1)

Difficulties in Verification and Validation

86

(2)

Overview of Recommendations in Process Model

88

(6)

Planning Phase

89

(1)

Knowledge Definition Phase

89

(2)

Knowledge Design Phase

91

(1)

Code and Checkout

91

(1)

Knowledge Verification

92

(1)

System Evaluation

93

(1)

Verification and Validation Recommendations

94

(6)

Validation Testing

94

(2)

Validation Test Cases

96

(1)

Acceptance Criteria

97

(1)

Testing Documentation

98

(1)

Revalidation

99

(1)

Validation Tools

100

(1)

Prevalent Questions About Verification and Validation

100

(7)

Validation Prototype Saves

107

(68)

Introduction and Assumptions

107

(8)

Components of Saves

115

(54)

Validation Test Manager

117

(1)

Creating Test Cases

117

(12)

Displaying Test Cases

129

(1)

Deleting Test Cases

130

(1)

Executing Test Cases

130

(14)

Validation Archiver

144

(1)

Validation Analyzer and Enhancer

144

(1)

Execution Analysis

145

(7)

Coverage Analysis

152

(1)

a Coverage of Knowledge Base

153

(1)

b Coverage of Equivalence Classes

153

(6)

Test Case Suggestions

159

(10)

Evaluation of Saves

169

(3)

Conclusions

172

(3)

Conclusions

175

(8)

Future Research Topics

175

(2)

Summary

177

(6)

Appendix A

183

(2)

Appendix B

185

(8)

References

193

(6)

Index

199

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