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Training NLP Engines Without All of the Answers

Natural Language Processing (NLP) or Natural Language Understanding (NLU) is a subset of Artificial Intelligence (AI). There are many benefits when using the technology, and I am surprised at the pushback from technical people when talking about deploying it. I guess there is a difference between learning about technology in academia and the complexity of actually deploying it.

So, how do we get past all the pushback when chatbots are having conversations and intelligent automation promises to be better than old-school EAI and SOA?

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Pick Your Poison: Waterfall, Agile, or Cowboy?

If you watch much TV or read much fiction, you are likely familiar with some typical character archetypes. First, there is the kid who does everything by the book and does well in school. Second, is the character that builds a business by testing the limits and getting the job done while still coloring in the lines. Third, the wild child character throws all of the pieces of a problem in the air to see how and where they will land.

When it comes to project management, there are three main types, just like the characters mentioned earlier. Waterfall is the cautious and rule-abiding kid. Agile is the businessman testing the speed limits to get a product out quickly. Finally, cowboy is the rule-breaker who just wants to get the job done without overthinking the rules they may be breaking.

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Are We Wasting Our Time Writing UIs?

A huge focus and time suck in the last 3 years has been how do I write a better UI, what is the user experience, how do I relate to the user via a screen with text, colorful shapes, and maintain the brand? Many companies have launched initiatives to make the software user interface more usable, aligning the user to the business process. All of these efforts are backed up with some ROI. The density of data presented on a page is changing, UI designers and User Experience teams are monitoring and trying to figure out how to get just the right data on a screen and make sure that there are not too many steps to complete a task. This is a long and never-ending road.

Looking back is it really working? Are users happier with the new UI? From what I am seeing no, users cling to old UI’s for ERP packages like Oracle and SAP, they are afraid to upgrade because they have to retrain the user on the new UI.  Teaching people how to use an application and system is a daunting task. Even if the new SAP Fiori experience is better and role-based vs task-oriented, people still need to be trained on the UI, trained on the role, trained on the workflow, and people have to change what they are doing and learn something new and different.