Domain structuring for knowledge‐based multiattribute classification (a verbal decision analysis approach)

Classification problems in decision making are, at least, ill‐structured or even unstructured ones, since, among other things, human judgments (i.e., Decision Maker preferences and/or expert knowledge) are the primary sources of information for their solving. Thus, not only the classification rules eliciting, but the application domain structuring as well, is a complex problem itself. The paper focuses on knowledge‐based classification problem structuring in the context of complete (up to the expert knowledge) and consistent knowledge base construction for a Diagnostic Decision Support System. Two structuring techniques are proposed as expert aids, as well as an approach to large‐size problem decomposition. It is asserted that application domain structuring and classification rules eliciting have to be arranged as interconnected procedures.