Supporting plan authoring and analysis

ABSTRACT

Interactive tools to help users author plans or processes are essential in a variety of domains. KANAL helps users author sound plans by simulating them, checking for a variety of errors and presenting the results in an accessible format that allows the user to see an overview of the plan steps or timelines of objects in the plan. From our experience in two domains, users tend to interleave plan authoring and plan checking while extending background knowledge of actions. This has led us to refine KANAL to provide a high-level overview of plans and integrate a tool for refining the background knowledge about actions used to check plans. We report on these lessons learned and new directions in KANAL.

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INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  H. Information Systems
  H.5 INFORMATION INTERFACES AND PRESENTATION (I.7)
      H.5.2 User Interfaces (D.2.2, H.1.2, I.3.6)
          Subjects: User interface management systems (UIMS)

General Terms:
Human Factors, Verification

Keywords:
knowledge acquisition, knowledge bases, plan analysis, plan authoring, process models