THE ROLE OF ASSUMPTIONS IN KNOWLEDGE ENGINEERING

Problem-solving methods are means of describing the inference process of knowledge-based systems. In recent years, a number of these problem -solving methods have been identified that can be reused for building new systems. However, problem-solving methods require specific types o f domain knowledge and introduce specific restrictions on the tasks th at can be solved by them. These requirements and restrictions are assu mptions that play a key role in the reuse of problem-solving methods, in the acquisition of domain knowledge, and in the definition of the p roblem that can be tackled by knowledge-based systems. In this paper w e discuss the different roles assumptions play in the development of k nowledge-based systems and provide a survey of assumptions used in dia gnostic problem solving. We show how such assumptions introduce target s and bias for goal-driven machine learning and knowledge discovery te chniques. (C) 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.