Software maintenance support for knowledge-based systems

With the increasing use of knowledge-based systems in public and private organizations, maintenance of these systems is becoming crucial. However, the main knowledge representation paradigms have not been carefully examined in terms of maintainability. In this article, we provide a synthesis of software engineering literature on software maintenance, review the state of knowledge-based systems development in practice, and, using a case study along with a number of real-world examples, explain why many practitioners are encountering problems in maintaining large knowledge-based systems. The results of the case study demonstrate that broader spectrum, mixed-representation languages are more in line with the software engineering maintenance principles than are single-paradigm languages.

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