Definition of a general conceptualization method for the expert knowledge

Abstract

The community of knowledge engineers usually accepts the importance of the analysis process of the expert knowledge. This analysis, also known as conceptualization, is carried out at the knowledge level. The objective of this analysis is to obtain a conceptual model, from the knowledge acquired from the expert. The conceptual model collects the relevant parts of the reality for the problem solution, forgetting those elements that are not meaningful for the system. Furthermore, it permits that the knowledge engineer (KE) to understand the problem domain and to detect knowledge gaps or wrong interpretations. There are several proposals to accomplish this analysis at knowledge level, but they do not offer a detailed process that helps in the elaboration of the conceptual model. This work proposes a method to guide in the elaboration of the conceptual model. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2000.