Using process data to populate ontologies

Ontologies are a mechanism for storing knowledge in a form that can be shared and possibly integrated into a decision support system. As in the design of other knowledge bases, the design of ontologies requires the elicitation, encoding and validation of knowledge gleaned from various sources. One approach to elicitation is the observation and analysis of experts as they perform work in the relevant domain. The analysis of such process data can lead to the identification and encoding of the knowledge that experts apply in practice. Yet despite the relevance of process data to knowledge engineering, the current research provides little guidance on how to capture process data in an ontology. This paper proposes a methodology called Process to Ontology for populating an ontology with expert knowledge as it is reflected in process data. An illustrative example of the methodology's implementation is given using data gathered from a simulated emergency response scenario.