PROVIDING SUPPORT TO HUMAN DECISION MAKING

• US 20150242787A1
• Filed: 02/24/2014
• Published: 08/27/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 02/24/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: BERNSTEIN, YANIV SHMUEL, Von Kaenel, Juerg, Steer, Kent Charles Barton, Sun, XingZhi, Garnavi, Rahil
• Granted Patent: US 10,049,334 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/04 Forecasting or optimisation specially adapted for administrative or management purposes, e.g. linear programming or "cutting stock problem" market predictions or forecasting for commercial activities G06Q30/0202
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06316 Sequencing of tasks or work

Abstract

A method to provide an insight to a decision maker to assist them in deciding how to perform a task includes: determining a time constraint in which the task needs to be performed; adjusting an accuracy of a computer program designed to calculate the insight to ensure that the insight is generated within the time constraint; scheduling execution of the computer program; and providing an insight output by the executed computer program to the decision maker.

Claims

1. A method to provide an insight to a decision maker to assist them in deciding how to perform a task, the method comprising:

determining a time constraint in which the task needs to be performed;

adjusting an accuracy of a computer program designed to calculate the insight to ensure that the insight is generated within the time constraint;

scheduling execution of the computer program; and

providing an insight output by the executed computer program to the decision maker.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the adjusting of the accuracy comprises:

determining whether current settings of the program enable the computer program to generate the insight within the time constraint; and

adjusting the settings to reduce the accuracy when it is determined that the current settings will not generate the insight within the time constraint.

3. The method of claim 2, where the program initially generates the insight using a number of iterations, and the adjusting of the settings to reduce the accuracy causes the program to reduce the number.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the program initially generates the insight using a plurality of data sets, and the adjusting of the settings to reduce the accuracy causes the program to exclude some of the data sets.

5. The method of claim 2, wherein the program initially uses a first algorithm of a first accuracy to generate the insight, and the adjusting of the settings to reduce the accuracy causes the program to use a second algorithm of a second accuracy lower than the first accuracy to generate the insight.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the providing comprises:

repeatedly determining whether the decision maker is ready to receive the insight; and

terminating the repetition and providing the insight to the decision maker when it is determined that the decision maker is ready.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining of the time constraint comprises querying the decision maker to manually enter the time constraint.

8. The method of claim 1, where the determining of time constraint comprises automatically inferring the time constraint from contextual data associated with the decision maker and characteristics of the task.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the providing of the generated insight comprises:

determining a type of the decision maker; and

filtering the generated insight based on the determined type; and

providing the filtered insight to the decision maker.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the filtering provides the entire insight to the decision maker when the type indicates the decision maker has full authority and provides only part of the entire insight when the type indicates the decision maker has less than the full authority.

20. The method of claim 1, wherein the providing of the insights comprises providing only the insights that belong to a current of decision making of the decision maker.

11. A computer system configured to provide an insight to a decision maker to assist them in deciding how to perform a task, the system comprising:

a memory storing a computer program; and

a processor configured to execute the computer program,

wherein the computer program determines a time constraint in which the task needs to be performed, adjusts an accuracy of a computer program designed to calculate the insight to ensure that the insight is generated within the time constraint, schedules execution of the computer program to generate the insight, and provides the generated insight to the decision maker.

12. A method to provide insights to a decision maker to assist them in deciding how to perform a plurality of tasks, the method comprising:

determining dependencies among the tasks and a time constraint in which each task needs to be performed;

adjusting an accuracy of computer programs designed to calculate an insight for each task to ensure that the corresponding insight is generated within the corresponding time constraint;

scheduling the computer programs to be executed in an order that satisfies the dependencies; and

providing insights output by the executed computer programs to the decision maker.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein when the dependencies indicate that a first one of the tasks needs to be completed before a second one of the tasks, the scheduling orders the first task to be executed before the second task.

14. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

estimating a completion time at which each insight will be available; and

providing the completion times to the decision maker.

15. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

querying the decision maker for a new time constraint for one of the tasks; and

adjusting the accuracy of the computer program for the one task based on the new time constraint.

16. The method of claim 12, wherein the adjusting of the accuracy of one of the programs comprises:

determining whether current settings of the one program enable the one program to generate the insight within the time constraint; and

adjusting the settings to reduce the accuracy when it is determined that the current settings will not generate the insight within the time constraint.

17. The method of claim 16, where the one program initially generates its corresponding insight using a number of iterations, and the adjusting of the settings to reduce the accuracy causes the one program to reduce the number.

18. The method of claim 16, wherein the one program initially generates the insight using a plurality of data sets, and the adjusting of the settings to reduce the accuracy causes the one program to exclude some of the data sets.

19. The method of claim 16, wherein the one program initially uses a first algorithm of a first accuracy to generate its insight, and the adjusting of the settings to reduce the accuracy causes the one program to use a second algorithm of a second accuracy lower than the first accuracy to generate the insight.

21. A computer program product to provide an insight to a decision maker to assist them in deciding how to perform a task, the computer program product comprising a computer readable storage medium having program instructions embodied therewith, the program instructions executable by a computer to perform a method comprising:

determining, by a computer, a time constraint in which the task needs to be performed;

adjusting, by a computer, an accuracy of a computer program designed to calculate the insight to ensure that the insight is generated within the time constraint;

scheduling, by a computer, execution of the computer program; and

providing, by a computer, an insight output by the executed computer program to the decision maker.

22. A computer program product to provide insights to a decision maker to assist them in deciding how to perform a plurality of tasks, the computer program product comprising a computer readable storage medium having program instructions embodied therewith, the program instructions executable by a computer to perform a method comprising:

determining, by a computer, dependencies among the tasks and a time constraint in which each task needs to be performed;

determining, by a computer, adjusting an accuracy of computer programs designed to calculate an insight for each task to ensure that the corresponding insight is generated within the corresponding time constraint;

scheduling, by a computer, the computer programs to be executed in an order that satisfies the dependencies; and

providing, by a computer, insights output by the executed computer programs to the decision maker.