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Competency Questions

TS edited this page Apr 14, 2018 · 8 revisions

Competency questions (Gruninger and Fox 1995) are questions that a knowledge base based on an ontology should be able to answer. Such questions serve as requirements for the ontology: Does the ontology contain enough information to answer these types of questions? Do the answers require a particular level of detail or representation of a particular area?

Conversely, given an entity of an ontology, it can be asked if the representation of the entity sufficient to meet the intent.

Example

Entity Name: isPartOf

Intent: To represent entities and their parts

Epistemological Competency Questions:

  • What is this entity part of?
  • What are the parts of this entity?

Ontological Competency Questions:

  • What does it mean to be a part of something?
  • Can something be part of itself?
  • Can something have only one (proper) part?
  • Are two entities the same if they have the same parts?
  • Does parthood imply contact?
  • What’s the difference between parthood and spatial inclusion?
  • What’s the difference between parts and components? How are they related?

Questions

Which (existing) systems/components meet requirements?

Intent - As part of a trade space analysis find existing systems/components that meet requirements.

Which requirements refer to or delineate a certain quality?

Does a particular system have any components that meet requirements?

What are the parameters of a particular system/component?

Who authored a requirement?

Who are the designers of a system/component?

What organization produced a (particular) system/component?

What does a (particular) component cost?

How is a (particular) component related to a (particular) system?

What are the resources (e.g., electrical power) needed by a (particular) system/component?

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