Some Considerations Concerning the Problem Interpreter of the New Manpower Planning System Formasy

摘要

The paper is an extension to a previous paper in which the tasks of the problem interpreter, the component of the manpower planning system that is responsible for the communication with the planner, are considered. In the paper, the authors go further into the difficulties that arise and the choices that have to be made in the development of the problem interpreter. The problem situations are modeled in terms of a network. The format is called the formal specification. However, the format will in general not coincide with the terminology of the planner. The representation tasks must offer the planner a suitable terminology to communicate with the system. The terminology is called the informal specification. The conversion tasks depend on both the informal and the formal specification. The evaluation tasks operate on the basis of the stated problem situation itself and on forecasts produced by the system. The paper begins by considering the format of the formal specification and the considerations that play a role in the choice for the format. It then considers the several presentation possibilities that determine the format of the informal specification. It considers some consequences of these choices for the conversion of informal to formal specification and vice versa. Finally, it makes some general remarks concerning the evaluation.