Experimental comparison of design/documentation formats for expert systems

https://doi.org/10.1016/0020-7373(89)90032-1Get rights and content

Abstract

This study examines the effectiveness of using a design methodology to modify an expert system. In this study, professional programmers were asked to make one of two different types of modifications to an existing expert system. Along with standard documentation (e.g., listings, program specifications, etc.) programmers were provided with either no design/documentation format or one of two different design/documentation formats. The measures collected were time to modify the program and number of errors. Results indicate that the subjects who used a design/documentation format took less time to modify their expert systems than subjects who did not have a documentation format. Furthermore, results suggest that programmers who used an Entity-Relationship design format were able to complete the modification task in less time. These differences are discussed with respect to their impact on software engineering practices for expert systems.

References (24)

  • D.A. Boehm-Davis et al.

    Documentation of concurrent programs

  • J.H. Boose et al.

    Expertise transfer and complex problems using AQUINAS as a knowledge acquisition work-bench for expert systems

  • Cited by (0)

    This research was supported by a grant from the University of North Texas.

    View full text