Vortex DecisionFlow: A Paradigm for Heuristic Decision Making

			     Richard Hull
			     Bell Labs       


Workflow systems help to automate the management and coordination of
tasks within an organization.  Because business environments
continually change, in many applications it is crucial that business
managers can easily understand and change the policies used in a
workflow.  The Vortex language has been designed so that the overall
structure and key decision points in a workflow can be exposed to
business managers.  The language is declarative, and includes an
eclectic mix of mechanisms for aggregating and synthesizing
information as part of the decision-making process.  

This talk presents the Vortex language and implementation strategies
focused on minimizing response time.  We will also show a demo of
the "May-I-Help-You" prototype, an application of the language
in connection with e-commerce.