In depth heuristic analysis in engineering design KBS

The development of a novel taxonomy of heuristics is discussed based on the experience gained by the authors when developing knowledge based system for civil engineering design. Five broad groupings of heuristics are identified. The purpose of the classification is to help system developers gain a better understanding of the development domain and identify areas where KBS could be enhanced to perform at a higher level to human experts. Heuristics are a particularly powerful form of knowledge. Their importance in human expertise has long been recognised. It is the authors´ experience that engineering design is an area of expertise which is particularly strongly influenced by the use of heuristics. A taxonomy such as the one suggested here could enhance the understanding of expert reasoning processes