Publication - Satisficing Evaluation Functions: The Heart of the New Design-to-Criteria Paradigm

Authors: Wagner, Thomas A., Garvey, Alan J. and Lesser, Victor R.
Title: Satisficing Evaluation Functions: The Heart of the New Design-to-Criteria Paradigm
Abstract: Design-to-Criteria scheduling is the process of custom tailoring a way to achieve a high-level task, via actions described in a TAEMS model of the task, to fit a particular clients quality, cost, and duration criteria or needs. At the heart of the Design-to-Criteria paradigm is the ability to determine how well a particular schedule, or schedule abstraction fits a set of design criteria. The process of measuring goodness of schedules or alternatives and determining which items are best is called evaluation. Working to meet criteria is ubiquitous in the Design-to-Criteria scheduling system and consequently evaluation is used at every turn. The new evaluation functions operate to determine a principled measurement of goodness based on relativity and proportionality. Relativity is important because the objective is to make satisficing choices and the goodness of one option is relative to the other possible options. Proportionality is a major concern because we do not want different quality, cost, and duration scales to skew the evaluation mechanism and because the clients criteria is described in a relative proportionalistic fashion. The new evaluation functions are paired with a new criteria specification metaphor, importance sliders. The slider metaphor enables clients, users or other systems, to define the relative importance of quality, cost, and duration with respect to three classes of concerns: raw goodness, thresholds and limits, and uncertainty.
Publication: UMass Computer Science Technical Report 1996-82
Date: November 1996
Sources: PS: ftp://ftp.cs.umass.edu/pub/techrept/techreport/1996/UM-CS-1996-082.ps
PDF: /Documents/UM-CS-1996-082.pdf
Reference: Wagner, Thomas A., Garvey, Alan J. and Lesser, Victor R.. Satisficing Evaluation Functions: The Heart of the New Design-to-Criteria Paradigm. UMass Computer Science Technical Report 1996-82. November 1996.
bibtex: 
@article{Wagner-18,
  author    = "Thomas A. Wagner and Alan J. Garvey and Victor R.
               Lesser",
  title     = "{Satisficing Evaluation Functions: The Heart of the
               New Design-to-Criteria Paradigm}",
  journal   = "UMass Computer Science Technical Report 1996-82",
  month     = "November",
  year      = "1996",
  url       = "http://mas.cs.umass.edu/paper/18",
}