Operational

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Operational denotes a working method or a philosophy that focuses principally on cause and effect of specific interest to a particular domain at a particular point in time.

As a working method, it does not consider issues related to a domain that are more general, such as the ontological, etc.

The term can be used strictly within the realm of the interactions of humans with advanced computational systems. In this sense, an AI system cannot be entirely operational (this issue can be used to discuss strong versus weak AI).

Given that one motive for the operational approach is stability, systems that relax the operational factor can be problematic, for several reasons. In a sense, the operational is a means to manage complexity.

There will be differences in the nature of the operational as it pertains to degrees along the end-user computing axis. For instance, a Knowledge Based Engineering system can enhance its operational aspect and thereby its stability through more involvement by the SME, of course, thereby opening up issues related to human frailities (to be defined further).