Generalised Test = Generalised Inference

Tim Menzies Dept. of Software Development, Monash University, Australia [email protected]; http://www.sd.monash.edu.au/ timm Abstract|We are used to viewing veri cation and validation as tasks to be performed after a knowledge-base is built. In this standard view, the inference engine is built rst, the knowledge base is then lled out, then nally a test engine is added to verify or validate the knowledge. Here, we reverse this order. First, we de ne a general test engine. Then, we argue that this \test" engine is also a general inference engine. That is, an architecture supporting a generalised test engine subsumes architectures that merely support inference.