Evaluation

Advantages of this Approach

When the Editable Expert Advisory System was set up on a PC at the Coventry Community Drug Team for the Expert to use, I thought this new approach would prove quite important. There were a number of reasons for this:

(1) Chapter one discussed the problems of responsibility, updates and maintenance for the information content of the AIDS/HIV Expert Advisory System and suggested a solution in the form of an editorial board. If such a board was established, they would find the Editable version o f the Expert Advisory System a very useful tool for updating and refining the knowledge base. Once this knowledge was finalised for a particular version of the software, the knowledge in the Editable version could be transported into the knowledge base of the non-editable version. By doing this, the end-user would not have the facility to change the information content, which would be a guarantee for other users that the information had not been altered and was thus correct, as established and censored by the editorial board.

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(2) The Editable version is also a useful tool for the Knowledge Engineer in a number of respects:

(i) Primarily, it saves him a considerable amount of time which would normally be used for interviewing the expert to elicit his knowledge and expertise. For example, forty hours of tape recording was made whilst interviewing various experts during the development o f the AIDS/HIV Information system.

(ii) The Knowledge Engineer needs to know very little about the subject domain and this also saves him time. Before the development o f the knowledge base o f the AIDS Information System, a two month study period was undertaken by the Knowledge Engineer in order to become familiar with the subject area of AIDS/HIV.

(iii) The Editable version of the system can be used to add, modify and update other reports in the system in a more direct way. This avoids having to always check the names of reports and the nodes to which they are linked because the Editable version will always automatically select the correct report during retrieval.

(iv) There is no bottle-neck during knowledge acquisition because the Expert is transferring his knowledge straight to the computer.

(3) The Expert feels part o f the development team and can see the system develop as he puts more work towards it. Seeing the fruits of his labour keeps him motivated.

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(4) The knowledge engineering sessions were quite different to the ones that took place during the development of the three tools described in chapter one. The knowledge that the Expert had structured was discussed at a general level. Therefore, more time was spent discussing the system design, user-interface, other features and how it could best serve their needs. Only one meeting every fortnight was arranged with the Expert.

Sophisticated word processors in the Windows environment are now commonplace in most organisations, and particular ones are usually used as a standard package throughout the whole organisation. It would be possible to link the Editable Expert Advisory System to whichever word processing package the user required, as opposed to the standard editor which is presently built into the system. That way, the user would not only feel more comfortable, but would be able to use the advanced features of their packages when editing reports.

Problems with this Approach

On the third meeting between the Knowledge Engineer and the Expert , the latter said that he had found a problem with the Editable Expert Advisory System. During the preparation of the reports for the Drug Misuse module, he realised that the tree-structure which he had constructed a few weeks earlier needed some modifications. He found, as he began to search around the initial structure, that there were items which he had omitted from some of the menus; he wanted to reposition some of the entries into other parts o f the structure; he wanted to delete some of them; and he also wanted to cross-reference some items to items elsewhere in the tree-structure, usually at different levels in the hierarchy.

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The Editable Expert Advisory System allowed him to modify only the reports and so he would request the Knowledge Engineer to do this each time a modification was required. This process was extremely slow and frustrating for both the expert and the Knowledge Engineer. When one change was requested by the Expert, this change usually needed further modifications once the Expert saw it in operation on his PC.

Although the Editable Expert Advisory System could still be used by the Knowledge Engineer and at a later date by an editorial board (if one was set up in the future), a new approach was required for the development of the Drug Misuse module. This approach needed to be quicker and more convenient, without the need for the Knowledge Engineer and the expert to have to communicate too often especially if the only purpose was to modify and implement part o f the Drug Misuse structure.

Another potential problem would occur if the CDT had the Editable Expert Advisory System on two different PCs for use by more than one person. The two systems would be at different stages of development and this would lead to confusion. One solution to this problem is to only have the system installed on one PC, but then only one person at a time can develop or use the system. Another solution to this problem is to network all the PCs that have the system installed on

them. Passwords could also be implemented into the system so that only

authorised users would be able to modify the Knowledge, whilst the others would only be able to retrieve information that was already there.

Mr Wells also suggested that it would be simpler to have just the Drug Misuse module available during its development as opposed to the whole AIDS/HIV Expert Advisory System. He also expressed concern about not having access to a

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computer when he was at home, which stopped him from developing the system further and utilise the spare time which he had available outside office hours. This showed his enthusiasm and commitment in helping to develop the Drug Misuse system.

The Knowledge Engineer gave a lot of thought to these problems. He had a lot of time available, as this was saved in the development process using the Editable Expert Advisory System. However, he was now also responsible for the design and programming of any new systems which needed developing. The solution to the Expert’s problems seemed obvious - modify the Editable version o f the system and allow the user to have the facility to change the menu items.

Mr Paul Wells, the Expert, was told that the Knowledge Engineer was working on

a new improved tool for him. The Expert was told to persevere with the

construction of the Drug Misuse module in the meantime.