Anurag.Acharya@CENTRO.SOAR.CS.CMU.EDU (03/28/88)
AI SEMINAR
TOPIC: Explaining Change in Schedules and Budgets
SPEAKER: Steve Roth (412) 268-7690
DH 3321, The Robotics Institute
Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA 15213
roth@isl1.ri.cmu.edu
WHEN: Tuesday, April 5, 1988 3:30pm
WHERE: Wean Hall 5409
ABSTRACT
This talk will present an approach to the automatic explanation of changes
in the results generated by quantitative project scheduling and budget
systems. Previous experience with CALLISTO, an experimental project
management system, revealed that managers have difficulty isolating and
determining the relationships among changes generated by systems like these.
These systems usually involve large algebraic models with frequently
changing inputs, which managers need to analyze frequently to track the
course of their projects. Our goal was to support this task using techniques
for identifying relevant and significant changes, composing well structured
sequences of assertions for describing these and selecting and composing one
or more graphical styles or pictures of the relevant data.
Our approach accomplishes this by synthesizing three previous approaches:
@i(comparative analysis), a technique for identifying relevant causes of
change in financial models; approaches to text planning based on rhetorical
models (e.g. of descriptions of database structure or justifications of
reasoning for expert systems); and an approach to automatic selection of
displays for conveying quantitative data. Descriptions of change are
generated using combinations of text and graphical displays and therefore
serves as a vehicle for exploring the interaction of the two modes of
presentation and the need for coordination.
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