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VUID Tools: Designing Ease of Mind
Matt Shomphe
Phil Shinn
Overview
1. The Problems
2. The Solution
3. Visio Shapes
4. VBA Macros
5. Results
6. Caveats
7. Next Steps
The Problems
Two problems• Reduce documentation
• Common symbols that VUIDs could use
Have a document and symbol set that are…• Clear enough to present to business-minded people
• Technical enough to hand over to developers
• Formal enough to be “automate-able”
• Easy to maintain
Other Solutions
Formal UML has been proposed by Mark Stallings of IBM (SpeechTEK, 2006)
V-Builder (Nuance: http://www.nuance.com/voiceplatform/)
SpeechDraw (http://www.speechvillage.com) Others...
All are more towards the code end of the spectrum
Details, Details…
Finding the right level of detail to present
BlackBox Sweet Spot
<vxml><!-- Actual Code -->
</vxml>
A Solution
Reduce documentation by allowing the callflow to store more data.
Visio template of UML-style shapes which VUIDs can use as a common “language”.
Macros for automating common tasks.
The Shape Sheet is Daunting
Shapes & Their Properties
Shapes use Visio’s “Custom Properties” fields
Allows for structured data, custom presentation, and automation.
The Shapes
Grammar State• State name
• Main prompt name & TTS
• Two reprompts
• Grammar name
Prompt State• State Name
• Prompt name & TTS
ExampleState
ExamplePromptName: "Exampletext"Grammar: ExampleGrammar
ExampleState
ExamplePrompt: "Example prompttext"
The Shapes
Checkpoint• Decision text
• List of variables
• Open-ended for further automation
x == y?
ShapesStart
From: CallingPage
Start/End Off-Page Reference Database Computational State
ConfirmPhone
Number(12)
ExampleDataSource
x++y--
StartState
OpeningPrompt: "What's youraccount number?"Grammar: AccountNumberR1 R2
WelcomeState
WelcomePrompt: "Thanks for callingBig Bank."
StartFrom: Initial Call
ValidAccount
(3)
InvalidAccount
(4)
Is theaccount_num
valid?
<account_num>
Account Database
validateaccount_num
Y N
Fail Out(5)
<max numberof errors>
The Macros Export_Prompts
• Puts all prompts in Prompt & Grammar states into Excel
IterateOverConnections• Exports a computer-
readable text representation of the flow
List_Of_Grammars• Exports the list of
grammar names and the states in which they exist
Design Assumptions
Prompts & Grammars have state names Every grammar state has a main prompt, two
reprompts, and the name of the grammar• If the main prompt is named “Main”, the reprompts are
“MainR1” and “MainR2”.
• Only the top-level prompt is exposed
Formal but flexible.• You won’t get an error if something isn’t defined.
Results
Successfully in use both at Countrywide Home Loans & Genesys Labs• Readable by both business & development
teams
Greatly assisted in document management• Prompt lists are generated from the callflow
• Scripts & recording lists use the prompt list
Caveat Aedificator
This is a Visio-only solution• Macros require Excel
There are issues converting between Visio 2002 & 2003
Output of IterateOverConnections is more of an example than something in-use
No restrictions (e.g., type-checking, loops, etc.)
Where to get it
Step 1: Sign up for the VUIDs User Group:
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/vuids/
Step 2: Click on “Files”
Step 3: Download “VUID Tools Lite.zip”
Step 4: Participate!
Conclusion & Next Steps
Publicly available, Visio-based stencil & macros as a starting point for a common symbol set for VUIDs.
The level of “formality” allows for flexibility in design with structure enough for automation.
This is an extendable solution, so start extending!
