Vk. Vaishnavi et al., A DATA KNOWLEDGE PARADIGM FOR THE MODELING AND DESIGN OF OPERATIONS SUPPORT SYSTEMS/, IEEE transactions on knowledge and data engineering, 9(2), 1997, pp. 275-291
Citations number
59
Categorie Soggetti
Information Science & Library Science","Computer Sciences, Special Topics","Engineering, Eletrical & Electronic","Computer Science Artificial Intelligence","Computer Science Information Systems
This paper develops the Smart Object paradigm and its instantiation, w
hich provide a new conceptualization for the modeling, design, and dev
elopment of an important but little researched class of information sy
stems, Operations Support Systems (OSS). OSS' is our term for systems
which provide interactive support for the management of large, complex
operations environments, such as manufacturing plants, military opera
tions, and large power generation facilities. The most salient feature
of OSS' is their dynamic nature. The number and kind of elements comp
osing the system as well as the mode of control of those elements chan
ge frequently in response to the environment. The abstraction of contr
ol and the ease with which complex dynamic control behavior can be mod
eled and simulated is one of the important aspects of the paradigm. Th
e framework for the Smart Object paradigm is the fusion of object-orie
nted design models with declarative knowledge representation and activ
e inferencing from Al models. Additional defining concepts from data/k
nowledge models, semantic data models, active databases, and frame bas
ed systems, are added to the synthesis as justified by their contribut
ion to the ability to naturally model OSS at a high level of abstracti
on. The model assists in declaratively representing domain data/knowle
dge and its structure, and task or process knowledge, in addition to m
odeling multilevel control and interobject coordination.