Abstract
There is a marked evolution of software to be more human-oriented or rule-based rather than flow based, in order to meet the challenges and urgent need for knowledge intensive automation (KIA) applications, thanks to their higher capabilities of implementing knowledge models.
State-of-the-art tools like Aion by Computer Associates, with its focus on isolating business policies and procedures from the the bulk of application code, and its strength in empowering business people to maintain rules components without programming are the strong forces driving this promising trend. A case study of an implementation of a Rule Based Expert System in a Tax Return Assessment automation project for the Ministry of Finance of a Swiss Canton will be presented.