DEVELOPMENT OF A MIL-STD-480B EXPERT SYSTEM TOOL

THE PREPARATION OF ENGINEERING CHANGE PROPOSALS IS OFTEN A COMPLEX PROCESS BECAUSE OF THE EXTENSIVE REQUIREMENTS OF MIL-STD-480B. STATE-OF-THE-ART COMPUTER TECHNOLOGY CAN PROVIDE EXTENSIVE ASSISTANCE TO BOTH THE EXPERIENCED AND INEXPERIENCED ENGINEER. A COMPUTERIZED ECP PREPARATION SYSTEM WOULD PROVIDE SEVERAL OBVIOUS ADVANTAGES TO THE USER ENGINEER INCLUDING DATA STORAGE PREPARATION. THE USE OF A DATA/TEXT/FORM MANAGEMENT SYSTEM SUCH AS HYPER-CARD CAN PROVIDE THE USER WITH ALL OF THE COMMON BENEFITS OF A DBMS SUCH AS USER-FRIENDLY DATA ENTRY AND EDITING, EASE OF NAVIATION THROUGHOUT THE DATABASE BY SEARCHING FOR RECORDS (ECP'S) WITH SPECIFIC FIELD VALUES, QUERY GENERATION, AD-HOC REPORT GENERATION, ETC. THE ADDITIONAL ADVANTAGES TO BE FOUND BY INFUSING AN ECP DATA MANAGEMENT SYSTEM WITH AN EXPERT SYSTEM ARE INNUMERABLE. IN ADDITION TO SUGGESTING INPUT VALUES, THE EXPERT SYSTEM CAN PERFORM EXTENSIVE DATA VERIFICATION AND VALIDATION AND INSURE STRICT CONFORMANCE WITH 480B REQUIREMENTS THROUGH THE USE OF THE SAME RULES.