Screening innovations in the telecommunications industry: an expert systems approach

Research is described whose goal is to develop and validate an expert system that will screen new products and services prior to commercialization. The authors have developed a model for screening telecommunications innovations and built a prototype expert system based on this model. They have addressed several critical research issues in the development of such a system: choice of the appropriate sources of knowledge, resolution of conflict among human experts chosen for knowledge acquisition, use of knowledge programming techniques that can accommodate uncertainty, and suggestions for multiple methods of system validation. It is noted that the development of the system will contribute to effective product planning in organizations and enhance resource efficiency. It will also generate guidelines for capturing and using expertise in highly unstructured decision-making situations in business such as new product screening.<>