Using Templates to Support Crisis Action Mission Planning

Abstract

In this paper we describe a software system called Tracker being developed under the DARPA Active Templates research program. Tracker allows users to define and use templates to support problem solving, e.g., crisis action mission planning. Our premise is that templates simplify problem solving by (a) providing flexible ways to make and record decisions, (b) reminding you to perform certain tasks, (c) encapsulating experience and domain knowledge, and (d) constraining task specification and language. In our vision, templates, when filled in and linked, can represent entire plans. In other words, the overall plan context may be embodied in a pre-existing template model that specifies how other more detailed templates are associated with each other. For example, the IRS tax forms are a collection of templates. The detailed templates that make up the IRS tax forms describe tasks or decision points and their alternatives. There is the main 1040 form, and then many schedules (detail templates) that are filled in as needed. The tax templates that make up the IRS tax forms work since each tax form is designed to collect data relative to some aspect of taxation as defined in a model that embodies the laws governing tax collection.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jun 01, 2002
Accession Number
ADA467190

Entities

People

  • Alice Mulvehill
  • Clinton Hyde
  • Michael Callaghan

Organizations

  • BBN Technologies

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • C4I

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Abstracts
  • Attachment
  • Business Administration
  • Contracts
  • Databases
  • Economic Forecasting
  • Environment
  • Information Operations
  • Instructions
  • Language
  • Organizational Structure
  • Standards
  • Taxes
  • Teamwork
  • Template Patterns
  • Word Processors

Fields of Study

  • Computer science

Readers

  • Computer Vision.
  • Database Systems and Applications
  • Team-Based Human-Centered Cognitive Task Decision Making and Information Performance.