Future: A knowledge-based system for threat assessment

During 1988 and 1989, the authors developed the Future system to help aid the South African Navy to identify threatening events early. The navy currently uses the system daily, improving productivity and reducing risk. The navy uses the system to monitor and interpret shipping movements recorded in a data base. It is a real-time knowledge-based system and its development followed an iterative analysis, design, and implementation methodology. The success of the system, largely, can be attributed to the development methodology followed and to the way in which the knowledge-acquisition process was conducted.