A systematic approach to the functionality of problem-solving methods

In this paper, we define a formalization of goals based on set algebra and we show how structural properties of domain relations and goals can be used to select problem solving methods in a library indexed by methods functionality. Our work is motivated by the need to reuse model components for knowledge engineering. We show how to construct a compound method from a goal specification and an abstract description of the domain knowledge. Finally we show that by modifying the required functionality, the same domain knowledge can be used for a different goal.