How to Mine Enterprise Ontologies
Instructors
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Linda Terlouw
ICRIS Consultancy, Antwerp Management School, Avans University of Applied Sciences, Nyenrode Business University
Netherlands
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Brief Bio
Dr. ir. Linda Terlouw holds both an MSc in Computer Science and an Msc in Business Information from the University of Twente. Her PhD research focused on modularization of organizations and IT systems using Enterprise Ontology and Service-Oriented Architecture. At the moment she is mainly working on data science (e.g. forecasting), data visualization and process mining (www.processminingfactory.com). Before she started her own company, Icris, she worked for IBM and Ordina (a large Dutch consulting firm). Clients she has been working for include several Dutch water suppliers, a large municipality, several factories, and the Ministry of Defense. She is lector (professor) at the Avans University of Applied Sciences and teaches at Nyenrode Business University and Antwerp Management School.
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Jan Dietz
Computer Science, Delft University of Technology
Netherlands
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Brief Bio
Jan Dietz is emeritus professor at Delft University of Technology, and visiting professor at the University of Lisbon and the Czech Technical University in Prague. He has always combined academic work with applying research outcomes in practice. He has supervised over 300 M.Sc.’s and 16 Ph.D.’s and he has published over 250 scientific and professional papers as well as several books. Jan Dietz is the spiritual father of DEMO (Design & Engineering Methodology for Organisations), founder of the Enterprise Engineering Institute (www.ee-institute.com), and founder of the Ciao! Enterprise Engineering Network (www.ciaonetwork.org). He is founding editor of The Enterprise Engineering Series, published by Springer. For more information, visit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jan_Dietz
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Abstract
Enterprise ontologies enjoy a growing interest among various kinds of professionals: information systems engineers, enterprise architects, organisation designers, etc. Having a common and stable understanding of the essential parts of an enterprise’s operations, abstracted from the ever-changing way in which they are realised and implemented, is growingly considered to be a key asset for managing and governing enterprises. The term “enterprise ontology” is the modern name for such an understanding. Enterprise ontologies also constitute the basis for designing enterprise information systems (including data bases), knowledge management systems, and business processes.
Recognising the importance of having an appropriate ontological model of the enterprise (or of a part of it) is one thing, being able to construct it is a quite different matter. Often, constructing is considered similar to designing, but that is incorrect. The ontology of a running enterprise is just there, it is present in the operations. It only has to be uncovered or, in modern terminology, mined. To achieve this, it is crucial to have an appropriate meta model. Most current meta models, commonly called universal or root or base ontologies, appear to originate from academic communities with a greater interest in their formal beauty and their ultimate and universal truth, than in their truthful reflection of how the people in the enterprise’s organisation experience their daily work. Thus, being human-centric seems to be an indispensable quality for enterprise ontologies, in addition to other qualities.
In this tutorial you will acquire knowledge about two things. The first one is an ontological meta model that has proven, in over twenty years of practical application, to be appropriate and effective in uncovering the ontological model of an enterprise. It is the notion of enterprise ontology as contained in the DEMO methodology. An ontological model produced by applying DEMO is not only abstracted from implementation, notably from ICT, but also from realisation, i.e. from all informational and documental issues, thus from information systems, data bases, document management systems, etc. The resulting ontological model of the enterprise is called its essential model. The theoretical basis of DEMO is constituted by the core theories of the emerging discipline of Enterprise Engineering, in particular the PSI theory (Performance in Social Interaction), which is truly human-centric. It is rooted in the theory of communicative action by Jürgen Habermas, and it focuses on the competence, authority and responsibility of the employees.
The second thing that you will learn is a method and tool to actually mine the ingredients for validating and/or establishing the essential model of an enterprise. Often interactions between people are registered in information systems, like ERP or CRM systems. We can use these data to find deviations from the desired way of working. The essential model of the organisation, combined with analysed data concerning identified deviations, provides crucial insight for business process redesign. In addition, we can find bottlenecks in the process by analysing waiting times, throughput times, etc.
Traceability and Structuring Knowledge from Cooperative Activity
Instructor
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Nada Matta
LIST3N-TechCICO, University of Technology of Troyes
France
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Brief Bio
Nada Matta is Professor at the University of Technology of Troyes. Studies techniques in knowledge engineering and management and specially to handle cooperative activities. She assumed several reponsibilities (director of Human, Environment and Technology of Information and Communication Department, Director of Scientific group of Safety and Security, Director of Information Systems Department). She organized several workshops and did Tutorials in Knowledge management jointly to KMIS, IJCAI, ECAI, CTS, CSCW conferences. Nada Matta did her PhD in knowledge engineering and Artificial Intelligence at University of Paul Sabatier in collaboration with ARTEMIS. Worked for four years at INRIA in projects with Dassault-Aviation and Airbus Industry.
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Abstract
The aim of this tutorial is to present techniques that help to capture and manage knowledge from cooperative activities. After presenting collaboration principles, approaches of traceability, multi-level and multi-views structuring from several sources: daily works, discussions, interactions, etc. are shown.