As part of the TOVE project, we set out to design a methodology for creating ontologies. The methodology is composed of the following steps:

• Define a set of Motivating Scenarios
• Define a set of Informal Competency Questions that the ontology must answers in order to support the motivating scenarios
• Using First-Order Logic, define the Terminology of the ontology
• Formally redefine the Competency Questions using the terminoloyg and first-order logic
• Define the semantics and constraints on the terminology using first-order logic

The unique contribution of this work is the introduction of compentency questions as a basis of defining the scope of an ontology. More information on the methodology can be found in: Gruninger, M., and Fox, M.S. (1995), “Methodology for the Design and Evaluation of Ontologies”, Workshop on Basic Ontological Issues in Knowledge Sharing, IJCAI-95, Montreal.