Page 234 - DMGT505_MANAGEMENT_INFORMATION_SYSTEM

Unit 12: Intelligent Techniques

 Helps if expertise is scarce, expensive, or unavailable. Notes
 Helps if under time and pressure constraints.
 Helps in training new employees.
 Helps improve worker productivity.

Expert systems are necessitated by the limitations associated with conventional human decision-
making processes, including:
 Human expertise is very scarce.

 Humans get tired from physical or mental workload.
 Humans forget crucial details of a problem.
 Humans are inconsistent in their day-to-day decisions.

 Humans have limited working memory.
 Humans are unable to comprehend large amounts of data quickly.
 Humans are unable to retain large amounts of data in memory.
 Humans are slow in recalling information stored in memory.
 Humans are subject to deliberate or inadvertent bias in their actions.

 Humans can deliberately avoid decision responsibilities.
 Humans lie, hide, and die.
Coupled with these human limitations are the weaknesses inherent in conventional programming
and traditional decision-support tools. Despite the mechanistic power of computers, they have
certain limitations that impair their effectiveness in implementing human-like decision processes.
Conventional programs:
 Are algorithmic in nature and depend only on raw machine power
 Depend on facts that may be difficult to obtain
 Do not make use of the effective heuristic approaches used by human experts

 Are not easily adaptable to changing problem environments
 Seek explicit and factual solutions that may not be possible.

12.1.5 Building Block of Expert System

There are basically four steps to building an expert system:
 Analysis

 Specification
 Development
 Deployment
The spiral model is normally used to implement this approach. The spiral model of developing
software is fairly common these days. Expert system development can be modeled as a spiral,
where each circuit adds more capabilities to the system. There are other approaches, such as the
incremental or linear model, but we prefer the spiral model.

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