The Underlying Issues in Knowledge Elicitation

Abstract

Eliciting knowledge out of an expert is essentially the major focus of studies in knowledge engineering. Although the collection of documents, manuals, specification, procedures and research materials readily available in electronic libraries constitute knowledge, the real knowledge needed in organizations for crafting expert systems exists ‘between the ears’ of workers, otherwise experts. Harvesting this knowledge poses the greatest challenge in the development of expert systems. Elicitation of knowledge and its transfer to a knowledge-based system is not only complex, but involves a range of diverse activities. This paper presents the important issues underlying the elicitation of explicit and tacit knowledge and also proffers solutions based on experiences acquired from research and development in the area of expert systems technology.