SAHIB: THESAUROFACETED REUSE TOOLS SUPPORTING THE RAPID ACQUISITION AND EXPLOITATION OF DOMAIN KNOWLEDGE

THIS PROPOSAL PRESENTS THE CONCEPT FOR A SUITE OF REUSE TOOLS SUPPORTING THE RAPID ACQUISITION AND EXPLOITATION OF DOMAIN KNOWLEDGE TO SUPPORT DOMAIN-DIRECTED REUSE. THE PROPOSED TOOLSET IS NAMED SAHIB, IN HONOR OF RAO SAHIB S.R. RANGANATHAN, THE RECOGNIZED FATHER OF LIBRARY SCIENCE AND INFORMATION RETRIEVAL. THE APPROACH IS BASED UPON AN INNOVATIVE REPOSITORY TECHNOLOGY, TERMED THESAUROFACETS, FOR DOMAIN KNOWLEDGE REPRESENTATION. THESAUROFACETS ARE AN INTEGRATION OF FACETED CLASSIFICATIONS WITH A THESAURUS. THE SAHIB KNOWLEDGE BASE WILL BE INITIALLY POPULATED FROM EXISTING GOVERNMENT THESAURI TO PROVIDE BROAD, APPLICATION DOMAIN KNOWLEDGE OF MILITARY SYSTEMS. SAHIB WILL EMPLOY AN ADVANCED COOPERATING TOOL ARCHITECTURE THAT WILL SEAMLESSLY INTEGRATE THE THESAUROFACETED REUSE TOOLS WITH THE STARS ASSET MANAGEMENT SYSTEM. THE FEASIBILITY OF THE APPROACH WILL BE DEMONSTRATED IN PHASE I AND AN INITIAL OPERATIONAL SAHIB TOOLSET WILL BE AVAILABLE, FULLY POPULATED WITH DOMAIN KNOWLEDGE, AT THE END OF PHASE II. REUSE-IN-THE-LARGE, ACHIEVED THROUGH DOMAIN-DIRECTED REUSE, WILL REDUCE SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT COSTS AND SCHEDULES AND LEAD TO INCREASED RELIABILITY, MAINTAINABILITV AND INTEROPERABILITY. WITH YEARLY SOFTWARE EXPENDITURES IN THE DOD ALONE EXCEEDING 20 BILLION IN THE 1990'S, THERE IS WIDE-SPREAD APPLICABILITY OF THE TECHNOLOGY. THE COMMERCIAL SECTOR SUFFERS FROM THE SAME "SOFTWARE CRISIS". THUS, IT HAS A COMMERCIAL POTENTIAL OF EVEN GREATER SIZE.