Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!evax!mullen
From: mullen@evax.arl.utexas.edu (Dan Mullen)
Newsgroups: comp.ai
Subject: Verification of KB Systems
Message-ID: <1991Jan4.180056.20917@evax.arl.utexas.edu>
Date: 4 Jan 91 18:00:56 GMT
Sender: mullen@evax.utarl.edu
Organization: Computer Science Engineering Univ. of Texas at Arlington
Lines: 18

I'm interested in information regarding any tools or techniques being
used to verify requirements for knowledge based systems.  This is not
something I intend to undergo personally, it is more of an informal 
survey and I'm curious if anyone actually does this.  Please don't 
inundate me standard V&V material.  I am specifically interested in 
verification of KB systems or expert systems.

In the proceedings from WESTEX-87 Green and Keyer say that nobody does
V&V of expert systems because nobody knows how to do it. And nobody knows
how to do it because nobody ever asks for it to be done.  This was three
years ago - has anything changed?  Does anybody work for a someone who
actually requires that specifications and requirements for expert systems 
be formally verified before implementation.  If so, how do you do it? 
IDEF? OOA? Structured Analysis? I'm not asking for trade secrets, just
general comments. Or would anyone like to offer a proof that verification
of KB systems is impossible?

Thanks for reading this, d.m.