Building the Adaptive Learning Thesaurus


Overview

Tasks

Included with

Tivoli Problem Management

Overview

Planning the Adaptive Learning Thesaurus

To make Adaptive Learning work, you must first build the Thesaurus by associating multiple keywords to single concepts.

Each phase is described in the following sections.

Planning an effective Adaptive Learning Thesaurus involves several steps.The more carefully you carry out each step, the more useful the Adaptive Learning Diagnostic Aid will be to your company.

  1. Read any problem descriptions written by help desk analysts.
  2. Create a list of the keywords in the problem descriptions that could help Adaptive Learning target possible solutions. In particular, look for:
    • Terms (words or phrases) that provide clues to problems
    • Terms (words or phrases) that represent symptoms of a problem
    • Any commonly misspelled words, acronyms, and abbreviations used by the help desk analysts
  3. If necessary, reduce each keyword to its stem by removing prefixes and suffixes. A word's stem is the part that is common to several forms of the word.
    Example: The stem of the words "misprints", "printed," and "printer," is "print," because it is common to all three words.
    Note: When you remove suffixes, be sure to remove any letters that drop when the word is changed to its ing or ed form.
    Example: The stem of the words "freeze" and "freezing" is "freez," because the final "e" in "freeze" is dropped in "freezing."
  4. After you list the stems of all the keywords, group all the synonyms together.
    Example: List the keyword stems "crash," "GPF," "lock," "system failure," and "freez." All these terms mean the same thing, so they should all be included in one group.
  5. In each group of synonyms, designate one word to be the concept associated with each of the keywords.
    In the previous example, you might designate "lock" as the concept for the group of synonyms.
  6. Make a table for each group of synonyms, in which you list each keyword that is associated with the concept. The first keyword in this table should always be the concept itself. That is, the keyword "lock" should be listed as a synonym to the concept "lock." In addition, each keyword or concept should be a single word, with no spaces.

The following table provides several examples of entries.

Concept Keywords
lock lock
GPF
crash
system failure
select select
choos
click
Computer computer
comptr
PC
workstation
machine
configur configur
set

Tip: Remember to review help desk analysts' descriptions frequently and add the keywords they use (including misspellings) to your Thesaurus.

You can use the table of keywords and concepts you created to add entries to the Thesaurus, which is explained in the next section.

Thesaurus Inquiry dialog box

Use the Thesaurus Inquiry dialog box to specify search criteria for the Thesaurus entries you want to retrieve.

To access the Thesaurus Inquiry dialog box, do one of the following:

  • If you are using the Tivoli Service Desk administrator profile or the Tivoli Problem Management Administrator profile, form the Edit menu, choose Thesaurus.
  • From the Help menu, choose Your System Profile and follow the instructions under Work With Thesaurus.

Work with Thesaurus dialog box

Use the Work with Thesaurus dialog box to maintain thesaurus entries in Tivoli Problem Management.

To access the Work with Thesaurus dialog box, enter information on the Thesaurus Inquiry dialog box, then choose OK.

Add Thesaurus Entry dialog box

Use the Add Thesaurus Entry dialog box to add entries to Tivoli Problem Management.

To access the Add Thesaurus Entry dialog box, on the Work with Thesaurus dialog box, choose Add.

Edit Thesaurus Entry dialog box

Use the Edit Thesaurus Entry dialog box to make any modifications to records in Tivoli Problem Management.

To access the Edit Thesaurus Entry dialog box, on the Work with Thesaurus dialog box, choose Edit.

Please Select a Concept dialog box

Use the Please Select a Concept dialog box to select a concept for the Add Thesaurus Entry dialog box or Edit Thesaurus Entry dialog box.

To access the Please Select a Concept dialog box, from the Add Thesaurus Entry dialog box or Edit Thesaurus Entry dialog box, choose Find Concept box.


Tasks

Inquiring about Thesaurus Entries

You can use the Thesaurus Inquiry dialog box to specify search criteria for the Thesaurus entries you want to retrieve.

To inquire about a Thesaurus entry:

  1. In the Thesaurus Inquiry dialog box, in the Word or Concept box, type a word or a partial word with wildcard characters to specify the Thesaurus entries you want to display. For example:
    • If you want to display a list of the words beginning with "w," type w* in the Word box.
    • If you want to display a list of concepts beginning with "in," type in* in the Concept box.
    • If you want to list all entries, leave both the Word and Concept boxes empty.
    • Note: The Thesaurus Inquiry dialog box is not case-sensitive unless your database is case-sensitive.
      If your database is case-sensitive, type an equal sign as the first character of the box to ignore case.
      For more information on using wildcard characters, see Searching and Inquiring.

  2. If you want to sort the list by concept, select the Sort by Concept check box.
    Note: Sorting by concept lists Thesaurus entries alphabetically by concept in the Work with Thesaurus dialog box. If you do not select the Sort by Concept check box, the entries are listed alphabetically by keyword.
  3. Choose OK.
  4. Choose Close to close the Work with Thesaurus dialog box.

Adding Thesaurus Entries

You should add one Thesaurus entry for each keyword.

To add a Thesaurus entry:

  1. In the Thesaurus Inquiry dialog box, choose OK.
  2. In the Work with Thesaurus dialog box, choose Add.
  3. In Add Thesaurus Entry dialog box word box, type a keyword.
    Note:
    Keywords can be words or phrases and can contain spaces and punctuation.
  4. Complete the Concept box by doing one of the following:
    • If you are defining a new concept, leave the Concept box empty. The keyword you typed in the Word box is used as both the concept and the keyword.
    • If you are adding a keyword that is associated with an existing concept, do one of the following:
  5. If the keyword you are adding is an acronym, abbreviation, or any other word that must not be preceded by other non-blank characters, select the Must Begin Word check box. Otherwise, clear the check box.
    Example: You should check the Must Begin Word check box in the following case:
    • The keyword is "old" and you do not want Adaptive Learning to return solutions containing words such as "golden," "told," or "bold."
  6. If the keyword you are adding must come at the end of a word, select the Must End Word check box. Otherwise, clear the check box.
    Example:
    If the keyword is "main" and you do not want the thesaurus to return solutions containing words such as "mainframe," "maintenance," "maintain," or "mainly," select the Must End Word check box.
  7. Choose OK.
    Result: The Work with Thesaurus dialog box appears with the new entry added to the Thesaurus Entries list.
  8. In the Work with Thesaurus dialog box, choose Close.
    Note: To make the new Thesaurus entries available to the help desk analysts, you must choose Learning button on the Work with Thesaurus dialog box.

Editing Thesaurus Entries

From time to time, you may need to modify Thesaurus entries. Use the following procedure to make any modifications.

To edit a Thesaurus entry:

  1. In the Thesaurus Inquiry dialog box, do one of the following:
    • Specify search criteria in the Word or Concept boxes, and choose OK to retrieve entries that match your criteria
    • Choose OK to retrieve all Thesaurus entries
  2. In the Work with Thesaurus dialog box, in the Thesaurus Entries list, select an entry, and Choose Edit.
  3. In the Edit Thesaurus Entry dialog box, change the data in the Word box, or go to the next step.
    Note:
    Keywords can be words or phrases and can contain spaces and punctuation.
  4. To change the concept, do one of the following:
  5. If the keyword you are editing is an acronym, abbreviation, or any other word that must not be preceded by other non-blank characters, select the Must Begin Word check box. Otherwise, clear the check box.
    Example: You should check the Must Begin check box in the following case:
    • The keyword is "old" and you do not want Adaptive Learning to return solutions containing words such as "golden," "told," or "bold."
  6. If the keyword you are adding must come at the end of a word, select the Must End Word check box. Otherwise, clear the check box.
    Example: If the keyword is "main" and you do not want the thesaurus to return solutions containing words such as "mainframe," "maintenance," "maintain," or "mainly," select the Must End check box.
  7. Choose OK.
  8. In the Work with Thesaurus dialog box, choose Close.
    Note
    : To make the updated Thesaurus entries available to help desk analysts, you must first choose Learning button on the Work with Thesaurus dialog box.

Deleting Thesaurus Entries

You can delete both concepts and keywords from the Tivoli Problem Management Thesaurus. When you delete a concept, all keywords associated with the concept are automatically deleted.

Note: You cannot delete a keyword if it has been used in an Adaptive Learning record that resolved a problem.

To delete a Thesaurus entry:

  1. In the Thesaurus Inquiry dialog box, do one of the following:
    • Specify search criteria in the boxes, and choose OK to retrieve only the Thesaurus entries that match your criteria
    • Choose OK to retrieve all Thesaurus entries
  2. In the Work with Thesaurus dialog box, from the Thesaurus Entries list, select an entry and choose Delete.
    Note:
    A Warning message appears when you are deleting a keyword. If you are deleting a concept, a different Warning message appears to inform you that all keywords for the concept will also be deleted.
  3. Choose Yes.
    Note:
    The entry is deleted from the Thesaurus Entries list.
  4. In the Work with Thesaurus dialog box, choose Close