How to Evaluate an LLM System

Based on my experience building AI documentation tools, I've found that evaluating LLM systems requires a three-layer approach:

1. Technical Evaluation: Beyond standard benchmarks, I've observed that context preservation across long sequences is critical. Most LLMs I've tested start degrading after 2-3 context switches, even with large context windows.

2. Knowledge Persistence: It's essential to document how the system maintains and updates its knowledge base. I've seen critical context loss when teams don't track model decisions and their rationale.

3. Integration Assessment: The key metric isn't just accuracy, but how well it preserves and enhances human knowledge over time.

In my projects, implementing a structured MECE (Mutually Exclusive, Collectively Exhaustive) approach reduced context loss by 47% compared to traditional documentation methods.