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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.

TestBench is a trademark of Carnegie Group.  TestBuilder is a
trademark of Carnegie Group, Inc.  TestView is a trademark of Texas
Instruments, Inc.  MS-DOS and Microsoft Windows are registered
trademarks of Microsoft Corporation

Contact: Florence Rouzier (412) 642-6900