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The following description of the development process assumes that the scope of the project is known and a preliminary specification has been developed. This specification would include:
Exhibit 1. Development Task Sequence for ASR Applications
Task | Description |
---|---|
1. Requirements Definition | Define dialog, APIs, text plan, load characteristics, measurement methods, and preliminary rollout plan. |
2. Standalone Prototype | Iteratively develop and test standalone prototype and API, Development install vocabulary, tune for regional accents. |
3. Integration | Integrate with IVR and test (or test with test databases), simulate load testing. |
4. Pilot Test | Test functional operation with a limited user set, modify as necessary. |
5. Detailed Rollout Plan | Develop detailed rollout plan, install equipment for rollout. |
6. Rollout | Full system test followed by implementation. |
Because speech recognition applications often interface with or support mission- critical systems, a cautious six-step approach that includes extensive testing before implementation is required. Exhibit 1 summarizes the tasks involved in the approach.
Task 1: Requirements Definition. The development team defines the application requirements in sufficient detail to create a more specific project plan and allocate assignments and target schedules. This documented definition includes:
During task 1, the company should also acquire and install a workstation-based development environment for the creation and testing of the prototype and for use in future development and maintenance. The ASR application development toolkit is installed on the workstation.
Upon completion of task 1, the requesters representatives review and approve the resulting definitions and plans.
Task 2: Prototype Development. The team employs a technique of incremental prototyping to develop and iteratively test a prototype application in a standalone environment. Technical personnel assigned to the project team are trained in the use of the toolkit by the ASR system provider during this task. This basic training in use of the toolkit ensures that the staff becomes familiar with the tools and methods used in voice recognition applications development.
The team installs the vocabulary and any variations that are anticipated to handle regional accents, creates the dialog, implements word spotting if required, implements accuracy performance measurement routines, and, in general, establishes a complete prototype of the application in a standalone environment. Iterative development ensures that the prototype has continually been tested as it is developed.
At the conclusion of this task, the operating prototype should satisfy the functional requirements of the voice recognition portion of the application. The operating prototype is essentially the runtime version of the voice recognition portion of the application, ready for integration into the overall application environment.
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