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Pacific Rim International Conference on Artificial Intelligence

PRICAI 1996: Learning and Reasoning with Complex Representations pp 206–220Cite as

From belief revision to design revision: Applying theory change to changing requirements

  • Reasoning with Changing and Incomplete Information
  • Conference paper
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Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNAI,volume 1359))

Abstract

The ability to correctly analyse the impact of changes to system designs is an important goal in software engineering. A framework for addressing this problem has been proposed in which logical descriptions are developed alongside traditional representations. While changes to the resulting design have been considered, no formal framework for design change has been offered.

This paper proposes such a framework using techniques from the field of belief revision. It is shown that under a particular strategy for belief revision, called a maxi-adjustment, design revisions can be modelled using standard revision operators.

As such, the paper also offers a new area of application for belief revision. Previous attempts to apply belief revision theory have suffered from the criticism that deduced information is held on to more strongly than the facts from which it is derived. This criticism does not apply to the present application because we are concerned with goal decomposition rather than reasoning from facts, and it makes sense that goals should be held onto more strongly than the decompositions designed to achieve them.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Computer Science, The University of Western Australia, 6907, Nedlands, WA, Australia

    C. K. MacNish

  2. Department of Management, The University of Newcastle, 2308, Newcastle, NSW, Australia

    M. A. Williams

Authors
  1. C. K. MacNish
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  2. M. A. Williams
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Editor information

Grigoris Antoniou Aditya K. Ghose Mirosław Truszczyński

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© 1998 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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MacNish, C.K., Williams, M.A. (1998). From belief revision to design revision: Applying theory change to changing requirements. In: Antoniou, G., Ghose, A.K., Truszczyński, M. (eds) Learning and Reasoning with Complex Representations. PRICAI 1996. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 1359. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg . https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-64413-X_37

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-64413-X_37

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-64413-2

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-69780-0

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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