EXPERT SYSTEMS MAINTENANCE: POST-IMPLEMENTATION SUPPORT.

Knowledge-base maintenance is a growing concern within the community of expert systems developers. One of the factors limiting the initial rush to apply expert systems technology is the difficulty of postdelivery maintenance. Since the quality of an expert system depends more on the knowledge engineering skills of its developers than on the implementation toolset, it is almost impossible to predict its maintainability. It is argued that maintenance tools can be developed in parallel with the expert system if it has a mature and stable architecture.