The KADS methodology for developing knowledge-based systems attempted to
resolve this problem by suggesting that knowledge should be analysed on
several different levels simultaneously: the <i> domain</i> level, the <i>
inference</i> level and the <i> task</i> level. The development of a set of
generic models which serve as a template for the inference level of knowledge
has proved extremely useful, with the result that KADS is now the most widely
used methodology for KBS development in Europe.  CommonKADS, the recent
successor to KADS, has extended and refined the recommended representations
for each level, so that CommonKADS now provides a comprehensive suite of 
representations for the analysis of knowledge. In particular, CommonKADS has
defined a set of ontological primitives with which domain level knowledge can
be analysed. <p>

CommonKADS aims to provide a detailed and re-usable approach to the analysis
of acquired knowledge. It is therefore important to understand how the results
of various knowledge elicitation techniques should be mapped onto CommonKADS
models; however, there is currently little understanding of how the results of 
structured approaches to knowledge elicitation, such as card sorting or
the repertory grid, could be mapped to other formalisms. <p>

Integration between structured knowledge elicitation techniques and the
CommonKADS modelling methods is being developed using a
hypertext and diagram-based toolkit, known as TOPKAT (The Open Practical
Knowledge Acquisition Toolkit). TOPKAT includes support for knowledge
elicitation techniques (transcript analysis, laddered grids, card sorting
and repertory grids), support for developing the CommonKADS model of
expertise, and hyperlinks between different representations. A particularly
useful feature is the ability to translate from CommonKADS to the
knowledge elicitation tools; this allows one knowledge elicitation technique
to generate input for another. <p>

TOPKAT is implemented in <a href="http://www.aiai.ed.ac.uk/">AIAI</a> 's hypertext and diagramming tool <a href="../hardy/">HARDY</a>
and in CLIPS; it runs on machines supporting either X Windows or Microsoft
Windows. HARDY provides the ability to create node &amp; link diagrams which 
can be hyperlinked to other diagrams or to fragments of text; it also provides
an interface to CLIPS, allowing CLIPS functions to automate much of the
functionality of HARDY.