Quark: A Methodology to Transform People-Driven Processes to Chatbot Services

Anup K. Kalia, Pankaj R. Telang, Jin Xiao, Maja Vukovic

Abstract: Human is a key cost factor in today’s service- and business-oriented processes. To reduce labor, we propose an approach to convert people driven processes to a chatbot service. Current approaches to create a chatbot service are based on formal representations or dialog based methodologies. Formal representations provide techniques for soundness verification and exception handling, however, do not provide a software methodology that capture steps for developers to build a chatbot service. Dialog based methodologies provide different step-wise approaches to create a chatbot service, however, ignore the formal aspects. To bridge the gap, we propose a novel methodology, Quark, that guides developers in producing a model that is complete and sound. Specifically, Quark takes a business process flow as input and produces a Watson Conversation model. Quark employs the notions of goals and commitments which provide a formal means for completeness and soundness. We present Quark using a change management process scenario.