Project 1: Alexa+ Readiness Audit and Baseline Skill

Build a production baseline that maps current ASK flows to Alexa+ action opportunities.

Quick Reference

Attribute Value
Difficulty Level 2 (Intermediate)
Time Estimate Weekend
Main Programming Language TypeScript
Alternative Programming Languages Python, Java
Key Topics Architecture boundaries, telemetry, migration planning

1. Learning Objectives

  1. Build a baseline ASK skill with observable conversation quality metrics.
  2. Define explicit boundaries between intent handlers and future action integrations.
  3. Create a migration decision matrix with rollback criteria.

2. All Theory Needed (Per-Concept Breakdown)

Concept A: Hybrid Voice Architecture

  • Fundamentals: Keep deterministic, high-frequency tasks in classical intent handlers while exposing flexible long-tail tasks via action contracts.
  • How it works: classify each user journey by stability, risk, and required autonomy.
  • Failure modes: unclear ownership, duplicated logic, and conflicting retries.
  • Minimal example (pseudo): 
    if journey.is_high_volume and journey.risk_high:
    route = "ASK_HANDLER"
else:
    route = "ACTION_LAYER"

Concept B: Observability-First Development

  • Track journey, decision_path, retry_count, and outcome for every request.
  • Define red metrics before coding (fallback rate, completion rate, auth failures).

3. Architecture and Build Plan

  1. Scaffold baseline skill and smoke tests.
  2. Add structured telemetry middleware.
  3. Build capability matrix and assign execution owners.
  4. Inject two failures (auth missing and API timeout) and document recovery.

4. Validation and Testing

  • launch_request success.
  • intent_with_valid_slots success.
  • invalid_slot triggers repair ladder.
  • Missing auth triggers relink guidance.

5. Troubleshooting

  • Symptom: too many generic fallbacks.
  • Fix: separate slot parse errors from business validation errors.

6. Deliverables

  • Architecture matrix (ASK vs action).
  • Telemetry schema doc.
  • Baseline smoke-test report.

7. Stretch Goals

  • Add a canary rollout strategy for one action-enabled journey.