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Verification and validation of knowledge-based systems with formal specifications

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 July 2009

Pedro Meseguer  and
Alun D. Preece
Pedro Meseguer
Affiliation:
Department de Llenguatges i Sistemes Informàtics, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, 08028 Barcelona, Spain (email: meseguer@lis.upc.es)
Alun D. Preece
Affiliation:
Computing Science Department, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen A B9 2UE, Scotland (email: apreece@csd.abdn.ac.uk)
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Abstract

This paper examines how formal specification techniques can support the verification and validation (V&V) of knowledge-based systems. Formal specification techniques provide levels of description which support both verification and validation, and V&V techniques feed back to assist the development of the specifications. Developing a formal specification for a system requires the prior construction of a conceptual model for the intended system. Many elements of this conceptual model can be effectively used to support V&V. Using these elements, the V&V process becomes deeper and more elaborate, and it produces results of a better quality compared with the V&V activities which can be performed on systems developed without conceptual models. However, we note that there are concerns in using formal specification techniques for V&V, not least being the effort involved in creating the specifications.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Knowledge Engineering Review , Volume 10 , Issue 4 , December 1995 , pp. 331 - 343
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1995

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