This paper examines how formal specification techniques can support the verification and validation (V&V) of knowledge-based systems. Formal specification techniques provide levels of description which support both verification and validation, and V&V techniques feed back to assist the development of the specifications. Developing a formal specification for a system requires the prior construction of a conceptual model for the intended system. Many elements of this conceptual model can be

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... ively used to support V&V. Using these elements, the V&V process becomes deeper and more elaborate and it produces results of a better quality compared with the V&V activities which can be performed On systems developed without conceptual models. However, we note that there are concerns in using formal specification techniques for V & V, not least being the effort involved in creating the specifications.