MLTEing Models: Negotiating, Evaluating, and Documenting Model and System Qualities

Abstract: Many organizations seek to ensure that ML and AI systems work as intended in production but currently do not have a cohesive methodology in place to do so. To fill this gap, we propose MLTE (Machine Learning Test and Evaluation, colloquially referred to as "melt"), a framework and implementation to evaluate ML models and systems. The framework compiles state-of-the-art evaluation techniques into an organizational process for interdisciplinary teams, including model developers, software engineers, system owners, and other stakeholders. MLTE tooling supports this process by providing a domain-specific language that teams can use to express model requirements, an infrastructure to define, generate, and collect ML evaluation metrics, and the means to communicate results.