Example: adding a basic skill

This example creates a skill that provides the current time-off policy to a user. The user is provided their correct time-off policy based on their status, full-time or part-time employee, and department.

See Adding a basic skill for more detail on adding a skill.

  1. Select User Menu > Coleman Digital Assistant.
  2. Click Add New Skill.
  3. Specify the basic information:
    • Skill ID
    • Name
    • Description
    • Language
  4. Click Next. Select Basic as the Fulfillment Type.
  5. Click Next. To specify the requirements, define full-time status as a String and department as String.
    1. To specify full-time status:
      Name
      Specify FullTimeStatus.
      Type
      Specify String.
      Prompt
      Specify Are you a full-time employee?.
    2. To specify department:
      Name
      Specify Department.
      Type
      Specify String.
      Prompt
      Specify Which department do you work in?.
  6. Click Next. Define a set of utterances that start the skill when asked by the user:
    • What’s my time off policy?
    • What is my PTO policy?
    • How much time off do I get?
    • How much sick leave do I get?
    • Do I qualify for time off?
    • Who needs to approve my time off?
    • Who approves my holiday leave?
    • Who needs to approve my out of office?
  7. Click Next. Specify the responses.

    Ensure that you account for as many scenarios as possible based on user response. Additionally, the conditions must be listed in sequential order. The first response that applies is provided by Coleman even if a later response also applies. The skill is more useful if more responses are included.

    In this example, the first conditions are based on full-time status, because part-time employees have the same time-off policy across all departments. If the user is a full-time employee, the time-off policy varies by department.

    1. Specify the first response:
      Variable
      Select FullTimeStatus.
      Operator
      Select Contains.
      Value
      Specify part.
      Action
      Select Message.
      Response
      Specify Paid time off is approved by your supervisor on a case-by-case basis. You are eligible for 5 days sick leave per year..
    2. Specify the second response:
      The second response applies if the user is a full-time employee and works in the Accounting department. In this example, the Accounting department has a different time-off policy from other departments.
      Variable
      Select FullTimeStatus.
      Operator
      Select Contains.
      Value
      Specify full.
      Variable
      Select Department.
      Operator
      Select Contains.
      Value
      Specify Accounting.
      Action
      Select Message.
      Response
      Specify You get 28 days of paid time off per year. Requests for PTO must be approved by Jane Smith. You also accrue 40 hours of paid sick leave per year, to a maximum of 80 hours.
    3. Specify the third response.
      The time-off policy for full-time employees in other departments is consistent. Only one condition is necessary to cover other departments, because the accounting department has been defined in the second response.
      Variable
      Select FullTimeStatus.
      Operator
      Select Contains.
      Value
      Specify Full.
      Action
      Select Message.
      Response
      Specify You get 20 days of paid time off per year. Requests for PTO must be approved by your supervisor. You accrue 40 hours of paid sick leave per year, to a maximum of 80 hours.
  8. Confirm your responses.
    See Trying out a skill.