The Emerging VITAL Workbench

VITAL is a research and development project which aims to provide methodological and software support for developing large, embedded KBS applications. VITAL is novel in that its ambition is to develop a methodology-based workbench covering the whole KBS life-cycle, from requirements specification to implementation, and to integrate and deploy a number of techniques drawn from artificial intelligence, as well as software engineering and human-computer interaction fields of research. In this paper we report on the current state of the VITAL workbench, and in particular we discuss the general design choices we took concerning the overall infrastructure, user interface, data and control integration, and tool management. Moreover, we'll describe in some detail the important role that some advanced software technologies — such as groupware and software visualization — have played in the design and implementation of the workbench.

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