Reflective processing of TMK hierarchies

A method for the automatic examination of knowledge system hierarchies is disclosed. A target TMK hierarchy is represented as a plurality of records in a database. A second TMK hierarchy (a "critic") is constructed of tasks, subtasks, methods, procedures and actions. The critic hierarchy includes actions that retrieve and examine at least one record of the database representing the target hierarchy. The examination of the record provides a result. The result is of the form of a modification of the processing within the critic hierarchy or of the form of a report or a modification of the target hierarchy's elements, namely, tasks, methods, procedures, actions, class structures, or the relationship between the elements.