Knowledge maps: An essential technique for conceptualisation

摘要

The process of conceptualisation is a fundamental problem-solving activity and, hence, is an essential activity for solving the problem of software systems construction. This paper first analyses the process of conceptualisation generally, that is, not as applied specifically to software systems, and establishes a general-purpose conceptualisation process, composed of three activities: analysis, synthesis and holistic testing. A proposed instantiation of this framework for the process of conceptualisation in knowledge-based systems (KBS) construction is then presented. The paper focuses on an activity that is frequently overlooked in conceptualisation, that is, holistic testing, and on a technique that is proposed to address this phase, known as the knowledge map (KM). This technique integrates the static and dynamic perspectives of the reasoning employed by the expert to solve the problem. This paper discusses the foundations and an application of this technique.