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USING AN EXPERT SYSTEM

by Armin Eberlein,Dale Fukami & Wonh Chieh Lam

Start ý Method ý Implementation ý Results ý Sources and PDF

The development of increasingly complex systems has become a major challenge for todayýs high-tech companies. Developers admit that the most problematic task lies in understanding the requirements and correctly transforming them into code. [1] The objective of this article is to apply advanced techniques of software engineering, requirements engineering, and artificial intelligence to system design. The expert system is a computer-aided software engineering (CASE) tool designed to aid in the gathering, analysis, formalization, documentation, and management of requirements for complex systems.

The importance of requirements engineering to the overall software design process should not be underestimated. Getting the requirements correct from the beginning is crucial to ensure that customers get what they want and to minimize defects. Errors not found during requirements analysis will lead to expensive defect correction later. In Software Engineering Economics, Barry Boehm states that the cost for removing defects increases exponentially with time. [2] Hence, early fault removal must be a priority in system development. The system described in this article is an intelligent tool that contains a well-defined methodology and can be used in the requirements engineering phase to minimize problems related to incorrect requirements.

RESEARCH

Requirements engineering is a means for companies to effectively manage their system requirements. However, most companies are still finding that managing requirements-related issues is not an easy task. There are a confusing variety of methods and tools that claim to be the answer to requirements-related problems. Unfortunately, at the present time there is no universally applicable solution. Although there is active research being done in the area of methods and tools, there is little effort spent on developing intelligent support for the early life cycle. And, although there appears to be a high potential for the use of artificial intelligence during the requirements engineering phase [3], research in this area is still rudimentary.

Weýll explore the possibility of providing intelligent support using artificial intelligence. Because expert systems have been one of the most successful and economically viable applications of artificial intelligence [4], they are suitable for assisting in requirements engineering tasks.

Various approaches have been used in the expert system to provide both active and passive guidance for the developer of new systems. The most complex approach uses intelligence models that provide assistance related to the overall development methodology in addition to guidance of lower levels such as individual requirements and documents.

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