Knowledge engineering using the UML profile: Adopting the model-driven architecture for knowledge-based system development

Knowledge engineering (KE) activities are essential to the process of building intelligent systems; it conceptual modelling is exploited so that the problem-solving techniques used may be understood. This paper discusses platform independent conceptual modelling of a knowledge intensive application, focusing on knowledge-based systems (actually, a rule-based KBS) in the context of a model-driven architecture (MDA). It emphasises the use of problem-solving methods for developing the knowledge-level models. An extension to the Unified Modeling Language (UML), using its profile extension mechanism, is presented. The profile discussed in this paper has been successfully implemented in the eXecutable Modelling Framework (XMF) - a Meta-Object-Facility (MOF) based UML tool. A case study demonstrates the use of this profile; the prototype is implemented in the Java Expert System Shell (Jess).