Validation and verification of decision making rules

A methodolggy for ttre validation and verification (V&V) of decision making rules is proposed. The methodology addresses the general problem of deiecting problematic ases in a set of rules. The rules are expressed as statements in formal logic. The definition of decision rules in formal logic makes the problem general in tems of application domains, and also provides an analytical-base foi defining gryors. lhe lpprgach is based on viewing a rule base as an organization oT information that flows from one process (rule) to another. Since Petri-Nets provide a powerful modeling and analysis tool for information flow sffucturbs, tlre methodology transforms a set of decision rules into an equivalent Peri Net representation. The static and dynamic properties of ttre graph are shown to reveal patterns of Petri Net structures that correspond to the problematic ases. The tools and techniqu-es presented in this paper are based on theory and are supported by software tools.. C3I Center George Mason University Fairfax, Virginia 22066 . The research was conducted with support provided by the Office of Naval Research under contract numbers N00014-90-J-1680 and N00014-93-1-0912. Paper to appear in Automntica, Vol. 33, No. 2, February 1997. VALIDATION AND VERIFICATION OF DECISION MAKING RULESX Abbas K. Zaidi** Alexander H. Levis**