Develop Conversational Agents on Google Cloud (DCAGC) – Outline

Detailed Course Outline

Module 01: Introduction to Conversational Agents

Topics:

  • Google’s goals for virtual agents
  • Virtual agent product suites

Objectives:

  • Describe the goals of virtual agent development and product suites.

Activities:

  • Lab: Exploring the Conversational Agents User Interface
Module 02: Introduction to conversational design

Topics:

  • Convergent and divergent approaches
  • Conversation design strategy

Objectives:

  • Understand virtual agent design.
Module 03: Steering bot design basics

Topics:

  • Use cases
  • Virtual agents
  • Start pages
  • Routes
  • Pages

Objectives:

  • Design a basic steering bot using Conversational Agents.
Module 04: Implementing bot design

Topics:

  • Use case review
  • Agent architecture
  • Creating the virtual agent
  • Creating the route
  • Testing the route

Objectives:

  • Create an agent, a route, intents, and pages.
  • Implement routes without parameters.
  • Use test agent for testing.

Activities:

  • Lab: Conversational Agents: Bot Building Basics
Module 05: Entities

Topics:

  • Introduction to entities
  • System entity types
  • Custom entity types
  • Managing entities in an agent

Objectives:

  • Access entity parameters.
  • Create custom regular expression (RegEx) entities.
  • Create custom list entities.
  • Use current recommended practices for extending a system entity class.
Module 06: Parameters

Topics:

  • Introduction to parameters
  • Parameters from intents
  • Preset parameters
  • Parameters from webhooks

Objectives:

  • Manipulate parameters using various methods.

Activities:

  • Lab: Conversational Agents: Parameter Manipulation
Module 07: Event handlers

Topics:

  • Definition of event handlers
  • Page, flow event handler, and scope rules
  • Form event handler and scope rules

Objectives:

  • Understand event handlers and how they are used in Conversational Agents.
Module 08: Versions and environments

Topics:

  • Version management in Conversational Agents
  • Environment management in Conversational Agents

Objectives:

  • Use version testing.
  • Use environments for different audiences.

Activities:

  • Lab: Conversational Agents: Managing Environments
Module 09: Testing

Topics:

  • Validation
  • Publication
  • Simulation

Objectives:

  • Validate for static analysis.
  • Publish to pretest user acceptance testing (UAT).
  • Simulate for unit testing.

Activities:

  • Lab: Debugging the Agent Using Test Agent
Module 10: Fulfillment

Topics:

  • Introduction to fulfillment
  • Examples of static fulfillment

Objectives:

  • Use text, conditional, and custom fulfillment.
Module 11: Integrations

Topics:

  • Google Messenger
  • Conversational Phone Gateway

Objectives:

  • Configure Google Messenger and Conversational Phone Gateway.
Module 12: Webhooks

Topics:

  • Why have a webhook?
  • Types of webhooks
  • Setting up a fulfillment webhook
  • Modifications for a JSON response webhook

Objectives:

  • Recognize the different types of webhooks.
  • Set up a webhook with fulfillment response.
  • Set up a webhook JSON response.
Module 13: Route groups

Topics:

  • Introduction to route groups
  • Managing a route group

Objectives:

  • Set up a flow route group.
  • Set up a session route group.

Activities:

  • Lab: Configuring a Route Group for Your Virtual Agent
Module 14: Design techniques

Topics:

  • The concept of a flow
  • Steering bot designs
  • The concept of guardrails
  • Design principle

Objectives:

  • Use flows to speed the development of an agent.
  • Use guardrails to prevent problems in agent design.
Module 15: Generators and generative fallback

Topics:

  • Overview of generators
  • Overview of generative fallback

Objectives:

  • Use generators and generative fallback in virtual agents.

Activities:

  • Lab: Conversational Agents with Generative Fallbacks