Conflict resolution in a knowledge-based system using multiple attribute decision-making

The metarules useful in the conflict resolution are often directly related to the multiple, conflicting, and non-commensurate objectives associated with the problem domain. However, in its current form, the use of metarules for conflict resolution has some drawbacks. Above all, the metarule use in rule selection is not tailored to the current situation or the specific user; it is tailored to the domain expert, whose domain expertise and preferences were used to construct a knowledge-based system. In this paper, we presents a new method for resolving the conflicts of rules in the knowledge-based system, using decision analysis techniques that explicitly incorporate a user's preference judgments about the rules. To this end, we consider a conflict resolution problem as a multiple attribute decision-making problem. Further, the proposed method allows for user's preference judgments that are specified not by rigid format but by user-friendly format for the purpose of reducing burden of information specification. We have applied the proposed methodology to an organizational information-oriented service and resource planning, in which there exist multiple conflicting objectives to be considered. (c) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.