Ontological Analysis: An Ongoing Experiment

Knowledge engineering is a complex activity which permeated with problems inherent in the difficulties of choosing the correct abstractions. Knowledge-level analysis has been suggested as a technique to help manage this complexity. We have previously presented a methodology, called ontological analysis, which provides a technique for performing knowledge-level analysis of a problem space. This paper presents the experiences we have gained with knowledge-level analysis. Our experiences are reported and the criteria for a formal knowledge-level analysis language are discussed.