A Socio-Technical Model for Deploying Expert Systems—Part I: The General Theory

This paper is addressed to an audience of managers and senior analysts involved with planning and controlling the knowledge engineering life cycle. We seek to provide them with a general framework for understanding the socio-technical implications of expert systems. More specifically, we argue that expert systems comprise two distinct but entwined subsystems. There is a technical component that concerns the task domain and the knowledge engineering process. As well, there is a social dimension of how users and managers relate to the system and how the system “fits” with the organization. We believe that understanding the associations between these factors is essential in evaluating the efficiency/effectiveness of expert systems.