4. A method according to claim 1 wherein associating the respective probabilities comprises at least one of receiving input defining at least some of the respective probabilities and retrieving at least some of the respective probabilities from a database.
1. A method for constructing a diagnostic network model comprising: automatically reviewing, with a processor, a structured electronic representation of each of a plurality of different types of documents, wherein automatically reviewing comprises automatically identifying at least one symptom, a plurality of components and causal relationships between a failure of the respective components and the occurrence of at least one symptom, wherein automatically identifying comprises mapping the failure of a respective component to at least one symptom to establish a respective causal relationship; associating respective probabilities, with the processor, with the causal relationships between the at least one symptom and the plurality of components whose failure contributes to the at least one symptom, wherein associating respective probabilities comprises obtaining respective probabilities from an individual participating in construction of the network model, and wherein obtaining respective probabilities from an individual comprises eliciting the probability associated with the causal relationship between at least one symptom and the failure of a respective component and receiving input from the individual of the elicited probability; automatically constructing, with the processor, the network model of the at least one symptom, the plurality of components, the causal relationships therebetween and the probabilities of the respective causal relationships; and displaying, with the processor, a representation of at least a portion of the network model.