Modularity in knowledge acquisition: a step towards reusability

the experience of the French central Bank in terms of developing knowledge-based systems have led us to elaborate an environment of knowledge modelisation called CERISE. In this approach, we introduce a notion of module, issued from software engineering. This notion is fully formalised using algebraic abstract types. The main difference between this formalisation and the earlier ones (see (ML)2, KbsSF, KARL, among others) is that the formalisation process does not take place after but during the knowledge acquisition process. This paper shows the effects of using this formalisation both in the acquisition and reusability of knowledge.