Innovation and Ontologies

Ontology Engineering 207
1.1.1.4.2 The Knowledge Meta Process
The Knowledge Meta Process consists of five main steps. Each step requires a decision to be
taken at its end and results in a specific outcome. The most important aspects of the process are:
• The main process indicates phases finally leading to an ontology based KM application: feasibility
study, kickoff, refinement, evaluation and application & evolution.
• Below each phase, its most important sub-steps are listed, e.g. kickoff comprises the sub-steps
capture requirements and analyze sources (not integrated here).
• Above each phase, the document flag indicates major outcomes of the step, e.g. results of the
refinement in the target ontology.
• The nodes on top of the flags represent the major decisions to be taken at the end of the phase
in order to proceed. The outcomes serve as decision support.
• The cyclic flashes connecting the phases refinement, evaluation and application & evolution indicate
that these phases may need to be performed in iterative cycles.
figure 73 Knowledge meta process (based on Staab, 2002; Sure, Staab & Studer, 2004; Sure, 2005)
The feasibility study is the starting point of the Knowledge Meta Process. It helps to identify related
stakeholders which are split into users and supporters of the system, as well as to use cases
describing and/ or supporting the usage scenarios. If the feasibility study results in a ‘Go’
decision, the results of the modeling serve as an input for kickoff (Studer et al., 2001; Sure, Staab
& Studer, 2004; Sure, 2005).
The actual development of the ontology begins with the kickoff phase. Similar to software
engineering and as proposed by (Fernández-López et al., 1999) an ontology requirements specification
document (ORSD) is the result of the first step. The ORSD should guide an ontology engineer in
his development work. The requirements specification encompasses domain and objective of the
ontology, design guidelines, knowledge sources (especially reusable ontologies and domain
experts), (potential) users and usage scenarios, competency questions, and supported
applications.