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Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item:
http://hdl.handle.net/2451/14482
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| Title: | ACQUIRING APPLICATION-SPECIFIC KNOWLEDGE DURING DESIGN TO SUPPORT
SYSTEMS MAINTENANCE |
| Authors: | Dhar, Vasant
Ranganathan, P.
Jarke, Matthias |
| Keywords: | Knowledge-based Systems Maintenance
Software life cycle
knowledge acquisition and learning
object-oriented design |
| Issue Date: | Jun-1986 |
| Publisher: | Stern School of Business, New York University |
| Series/Report no.: | IS-87-117 |
| Abstract: | Most large systems development efforts proceed in a top-down fashion
where initial specifications and requirements are incorporated into a
high-level design, followed by programs based on this design. However, a
major part of the software life-cycle effort is devoted to maintenance.
While several existing methodologies aid in the initial phases of
requirements and specification, they have proven to be of little value
for maintenance. Changes in user requirements are often translated
directly to the level of code, divorcing it from the high level design
it was based on. After a few such changes, the programs may not
correspond to any formal high-level design, making subsequent
maintenance difficult. We argue that maintenance must be based on the
knowledge used in synthesizing the high-level design. This requires a
development environment where the knowledge about high-level designs is
formally represented, and raises the question about how this knowledge
will be acquired by the support environment in the first place. In this
paper, we present a model that enables the support environment to
acquire design knowledge through "learning by observation" of
a designer engaged in specifying a high-level design. The knowledge that
the learning system begins with is a generic object for expressing
design decisions. Based on the input provided by the designer, and a
limited interactive querying process, it constructs and continuously
refines a taxonomic classification of application-specific knowledge and
rules at an appropriate level of generality that capture the rationale
of the design. This knowledge can be used subsequently for maintaining
system designs and recognizing design situations similar to the ones it
has knowledge about. |
| URI: | http://hdl.handle.net/2451/14482 |
| Appears in Collections: | IOMS: Information Systems Working Papers
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