Maintaining constraint-based applications

Many knowledge-based applications require knowledge maintenance to keep the application functional throughout its lifecycle. In this paper we present iCAM, a constraint-based knowledge maintenance system that operates in a hospital's material management domain. iCAM uses consistency algorithms to assist users in placing orders and making order corrections, and to ensure that maintenance activities are consistent with the department's ordering environment. This approach allows iCAM to interact with the user to revise orders and/or to update the knowledge base. For the user, there is not much distinction between these two tasks. This is one of iCAM's greatest strengths; order corrections and knowledge maintenance are carried out in a similar manner, since both are based on inconsistencies with respect to the existing knowledge base. iCAM has various constraint types that support physical and policy restrictions. It also allows maintenance to be done by a number of users while maintaining the integrity of the knowledge base by a system of role restrictions.