Why aren't SE techniques being used by KBS systems developers already?
Michael Wilson · 1989
In order to describe current Knowledge Based Systems (KBS) development, and explain the elements of software engineering it does, doesn’t, could and couldn’t use, it is necessary to informally characterise software engineering itself, then compare KBS development with this. In conclusion, this paper will then suggest the directions KBS research is taking, and should move in future. Software engineering methods can be viewed as five layers which constrain simple hacking. The layers have been individually developed over the last twenty years, and the early layers are more developed than the later ones. The first layer of software engineering technology is the use of life cycle models to structure software development projects. These allow managerial decisions to be made, and emphasise the consequences for later stages of early design decisions; the extreme case being the cost in maintenance of failures to develop systems to meet the real requirements of users. The second layer focusses on the design and implementation core of the life cycle and states the documentation and control procedures for version control, quality control, easier maintenance and project management. The third layer uses data from previous development projects as the basis for predictions of the time to