Carnegie Group Announces:  TestBench  2.2

(The Addition of Case-based Reasoning Makes TestBench the Only Expert
System Diagnostic Tool To Offer Multiple Problem Solving Strategies)
 

Pittsburgh, PA (October 21, 1992) -- At its TestBench Users' Group Meeting
today Carnegie Group announced the development of TestBench 2.2, a new
release which, when made available in January 1993, will offer the most
comprehensive representation capabilities for building expert help desk
applications and troubleshooting systems for field and customer service
organizations.

The new release will add case-based reasoning to TestBench's already
extensive representation approaches which include troubleshooting, rules
of thumb and decision trees.  "The help desk and field and customer
service environments have multiple needs and require multiple approaches
to meet those needs.  Carnegie Group is the only vendor to seamlessly
integrate all of the necessary problem solving strategies under one
consistent architecture for developers and users," said Dennis Yablonsky,
president and CEO of Carnegie Group.

TestBench allows users to choose the method most appropriate for capturing
expertise to suit their problems as well as the ability to pick where to
begin the diagnostic session, jump ahead if desired, select from several
available search strategies and volunteer information.  These TestBench
features eliminate all the major constraints inherent in tools requiring a
single problem-solving approach to diagnostics. In addition, TestBench is
the only tool to offer a graphical development environment for case-based
reasoning which dramatically reduces the development effort and
maintenance costs of the knowledge base.

Now, a developer can "mix and match strategies to solve their diagnostic
problems, using, for example, case-based reasoning for broad, simple
problems, fault hierarchy for more complex structured problems, rules of
thumb for exceptions, or decision logic for existing manuals," said Chip
Bodin, director of diagnostic technologies for Carnegie Group.  "What we
have done is to provide an integrated, seamless visual environment for
both expert system development and delivery.  In this environment, a
developer can graphically build, organize and change a case base, fault
hierarchy or decision tree.  Correspondingly, a user can index into the
diagnosis anywhere he chooses, enter a free-form text description of the
problem and TestBench will invoke the appropriate diagnostic action,"
added Bodin.

"One of the reasons we have the largest installed base of diagnostic expert
sytems on the market is because we listen to our users.  At last year's
TestBench Users Group meeting, many of our customers who had successfully
deployed systems using TestBench requested the addition of these features.
 The market wants freedom of choice, flexibility, a consistent environment
that gives them results accurately and fast," said Bodin.

TestBench, a client/server application solution, incorporates a development
environment, TestBuilder, used by troubleshooting experts to create and
maintain knowledge bases, and a delivery environment, TestView (now a
Windows application), which provides diagnostic assistance to field
engineers and help desk personnel.

Also available as add-on features to TestBench are the Hypertext Module,
which links TestBench to existing commercially available hypertext
products and the Report Module, which provides advanced capabilities for
running statistical and summary reports from multiple TestView sessions.

ADDITIONAL FEATURES

TestBench 2.2 will incorporate several significant technical upgrades,
including:

Key Word Search--allows the user to select symptoms and causes using
natural language instead of working through a diagnostic tree. TestBench
matches the user's problem description against phrases associated with
symptoms in the knowledge base.  Matches from the key word search will
advance the user quickly to a list of symptoms, speeding diagnosis of the
problem.

Nested Categories--gives richness and depth in the problem classification
phase of the diagnosis by structuring symptoms into a categorization
hierarchy, which the user can then walk through to facilitate the
classification.

DDE (dynamic data exchange) and DLL (dynamic link library) support for
Microsoft Windows--Enables seamless integration of TestView with other
applications using windows standard methods.  This allows TestView to
display pictures and link to reference information, as well as to obtain
the results of tests via external functions.

ABOUT CARNEGIE GROUP

Established in 1984, Carnegie Group is the industry leader in applying
advanced software technology to capture knowledge assets in integrated
semi-custom solutions.  Through the automation of complex decision support
systems Carnegie Group helps clients leverage their intellectual capital.
Our technology is applied in the areas of configuration/provisioning,
logistics/planning/scheduling, text processing, help desks/diagnostics,
design for manufacturability and sales support/negotiation.

For further information on TestBench 2.2 or any of Carnegie Group's
products and services, please contact Florence Rouzier at (412) 642-6900.

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