Using commonKADS in "soft" domains

In this paper we discuss applying the CommonKADS methodology to the domain of Human Resource Management. Generally knowledge based systems are built for well defined, formal ized, "hard" domains. The area of Human Resource Management, however, is loosely defined and does not provide well-established theories or methods. We investigate the extent to which the approach advocated by CommonKADS is suited for such "soft" domains. Our conclusion is that ComnionKADS is particularly fitting to these domains because of its structuring capacity. The availability of model-templates that reflect different levels of refinement and different viewpoints, support the categorization of domain knowledge, and the specification of domain relations.