Blog of Joos Buijs

Science is still a `vague’ thing for people outside of academia (e.g. most family and friends of people in academia). Recent news reports of people in academia ‘borrowing’ texts, ‘inventing’ data or getting a PhD approved at a ‘philosophy’ university while it was rejected at a technical one, do not really help in explaining what academia really is about…

The following picture describes it rather well I think. It also helps in explaining why people tend to borrow text, invent data or really want a reward for their hard work (assuming they did)…

I’m currently in my 3rd instance of ‘Hmm not quite going as expected’, hoping for ‘amazing results’ by tomorrow, or at least next Monday when the paper is due.

PS My supervisor recently published a book (http://www.processmining.org/book/start) where he thanks his wife for understanding that “science is more rewarding than running errands”. I totally second that and so far my girlfriend allows me to do more science than running errands.

First of all, I’m alive! Or, in other words, sorry for not really posting for, WOW, almost a year now… Some day I should write about all the cool stuff I did in the mean time (a lot has happened both in my work and private lifes).

But for now, while I’m awaiting a code update from a colleague, here is why I love academia so much, for now…

I’ll schedule some more posts like this for the next days while I’m waiting… (I have some links lined up)

TTFN!

Some songs can also be captured in a nice workflow, see for instance the one below:

From http://loveallthis.tumblr.com/post/166124704

Or what about this one:

From http://jeannr.tumblr.com/post/165291081/i-made-a-flow-chart-that-we-might-better

At first I thought, well, that ruins the beauty of these songs. But, on the other hand, it also makes some things a bit clearer, it gives structure to the song. For the one below you really need a chart to (be able to) understand it. Unfortunately it is not a workflow or proces model but a hierarchy model. Enjoy

The hierarchy is shown below and explained on http://gean.wwco.com/grandpa/:

From http://gean.wwco.com/grandpa/

I recently started watching ‘The Big Bang Theory’. Its like a ‘PhdComics‘ in tv series shape. In Season 2, episode 13 there is a very funny scene about the ‘friendship algorithm’.

The flowchart is:

Friendship algorithm flowchart (original) from http://watch-bigbangtheory.com/1330-friendship-algorithm/

Or, better readible:

Friendship Algorithm (readible version)

Please note that in the original version there was a loop where Sheldon got stuck in. Luckily Howard spotted this on time and improved it.

TTFN!

Joos

… a perfect time to get some work done!

Less people to interrupt you, plenty of ‘sun energy’ and of course:

I travel by train but then still: more room in the train and less slow people in front of you when you walk to the campus. Well, okay, only less slow people, the trains are shorter so still rather crowded…

And, to be honest, I do look forward to my holiday in 2 1 week! Ooh, the nice English country side….

Well, I’ll settle for a nice and quiet (*ahum*) weekend with/at my girlfriend’s family.

Bye!

Joos

Hmz… Maybe this is why process improvement fails… Maybe we need to deliver the message better and not mention the chickens…

;

From http://www.dilbert.com/strips/comic/2009-10-11/

And also: look out that we’re not replaced by chickens (/duck/frogs/dogs/cows/etc.) ourselves!

Enjoy the weekend! (I know I will)

So, I’m settling nicely into my PhD life. Writing papers, starting up the CoSeLoG project, getting into contact with most of the participants in the project, never a dull moment!

Speaking of the CoSeLoG project, it now has its own, ‘official’, website: http://www.win.tue.nl/coselog. So far it does not contain much information but this will grow in the future (you can follow the RSS feed if you’re interested).

Another big change is the renaming of my XESMa application. Apparently, it can be pronounced like something completely different (which I did not think of). So, from today on, XESMa is renamed to XESame. Not like Sesame Street but Open Sesame of course! (since it will open the process mining cave where all kinds of treasury can be found…)

XESame has also been given a ‘real’ home, at processmining.org! So far the XESame page contains even less information than my blog post but when I find time I’ll add more explanations and examples. Furthermore, I plan to update the GUI of XESame, but CoSeLoG comes first…

So far so good, this was it for now, back to making contacts!

- Joos

Hi, I’m back with another funny process model. This time one that can actually come in handy

Tech support cheat sheet

From http://xkcd.com/627/

Enjoy the weekend! (I know I will…)

Joos

I’m back!

After my final presentation and master thesis round-up I took a one-month holiday. Last Monday the holiday ended and I started my job: PhD candidate.

Not much changed actually: I sit in the same office at the same desk, I still travel more than 2,5 hours (2 times 1:15) each day to go to work and home again, I still like my colleagues and I still work on process mining (and even on XESMa a little bit).
There are some differences of course: I’m not a student any more but a ‘real’ employee with all kinds of things attached (from a mail box to all kinds of administrative things). Another thing I already notice is that much more different things come ‘my way’. During a master project you’re mainly working on that. As a PhD candidate you have your assigned project (see below) but you’re also supposed to help in education (but not too much, although I think I’ll like it), set up your own education plan (which courses do you need/want to follow) and many more fun things that come your way. Another benefit is that you belong ‘more’ to the group. Instead of only 6 months you’re now in this group for 4 years (at the very least). This means that other people invest (even) more time and have (even) more interest in you and vice versa.
Although I never though that I would pursue a PhD it does feel good, this first week at least.

The project: CoSeLoG

Update (20-5-2010): There is now an official CoSeLoG website!

So, the project, the main reason for me to start this PhD. If you don’t like the project you’re on, you won’t survive the 4 years.

The goal of the project, in brief, is to implement configurable process models in a SaaS (Software as a Service) environment to support municipalities in executing their processes.

The idea is that processes within municipalities are much alike. Registering an unborn child is similar in most municipalities. By applying process mining, configurable process models should be discovered. These models should describe the process executed in each of the municipalities. The next step is to implement these models in a SaaS system and provide formal semantics for execution. Because the models are configurable, each municipality will execute their own variant of the process. Furthermore, during execution the correct data should be recorded to enable the application of process mining on the SaaS system. This will enable municipalities to compare themselves with others and improve their process execution.
More information about this project can be found at the links at the end of this post.

One of the main advantages of this project is that it is very practical. 2 IT companies cooperate: D!MPACT, a Dutch IT cooperative for and by 20 municipalities and Pallas Athena, the well known creators of BPM|One used by +/-250 of the 440 Dutch municipalities.
Furthermore, 10 municipalities support the project, providing case data to use. These municipalities are Bergeijk, Bladel, Coevorden, Eersel, Emmen, Gemert-Bakel, Hellendoorn, Noordoostpolder, Reusel de Mierden and Zwolle. Half of these municipalities are located around Eindhoven. The other half however are located in the north of the Netherlands so I’m prepared for some long train rides. Not all municipalities are a member of D!MPACT.
And, also very important, another PhD candidate will join the project in a few weeks. Together we try to realize the goals mentioned before. The other candidate will focus more on the practical implementation of the process models in the SaaS environment. My goal is to discover the process models using process mining, generate a configurable process model from these models (using a process mining algorithm to be developed) and enable the application of process mining in the resulting SaaS environment.

Overall I’m very pleased with the content of the project. Although configurable process models are new for me they are very interesting. Furthermore, the main goal of the project will be applicable to many companies too. Think for instance about the salary payment process of an international company, this could be captured in a configurable process model… So the future after my PhD also looks promising.

That’s it for now. Expect some topics about configurable process model in the future, although I’m planning to continue development on XESMa.

TTFN

Links:

English

Update (20-5-2010): There is now an official CoSeLoG website!

(Google Cache) FILLED vacancy on TU/e website

Dutch

Official announcement at NWO.nl

Official announcement at Jacquard.nl

News announcement at TU/e website

News announcement at D!MPACT website

Computable! article

Update 26-05-2010: The official XESame (or XESMa) website is now located at processmining.org! This post will not be updated further.

So, after 7 months my master project is completed and the results are final!

Last Monday I gave my final presentation (.pptx, 1.7 MB). This presentation gives a good introduction into the problem and topic of my project.

More detailed information about what I did can be found in my master_thesis (.pdf, 9.8 MB). This should also be used as a temporary ‘user guide’ for my application.

Warning: This is a prototype! No support or guarantee is given whatsoever! Use at your own risk!

If you want to test/play with the prototype I created, it can be downloaded at the link below. However, use it at your own risk

XESMa Application Prototype (v 1.0) (.zip, 3.4 MB)

How to start XESMa in 3 steps:

1. Extract the contents of the zip file;
2. In Eclipse (or any Java editor), create a new Java Project from the folder you just extracted;
3. Execute ‘Application.java’ in the org.processmining.mapper.ui package.

Warning: This is a prototype! No support or guarantee is given whatsoever! Use at your own risk!

Now that everything is finished I will enjoy a holiday until May 3. Then I’ll start on a PhD position, here at the TU/e, more about this in another blog post.

I hope I have/get the time to continue to work on XESMa in the future. I have some ideas for improvement. And of course, your feedback is very much appreciated!

Thesis abstract:

Information systems are taking a prominent place in today’s business process execution. Since most
systems are complex, enterprise-wide systems, very few users, if any, have a clear and complete
view of the overall process. In the area of process mining several techniques have been developed to
reverse engineer information about a process from a recording of its execution. To apply process
mining analysis on process-aware information systems, an event log is required. An event log
contains information about cases and the events that are executed on them.
Although many systems produce event logs, most systems use their own event log format.
Furthermore, the information contained in these event logs is not always suitable for process
mining. However, since much data is stored in the data storage of the information system, it is
often possible to reconstruct an event log that can be used for process mining. Extracting this
information from the business data is a time consuming task and requires domain knowledge. The
domain knowledge required to dene the conversion is most likely held by people from business,
e.g. business analysts, since they know or investigate the business processes and their integration
with technology. In most cases business analysts have no or limited programming knowledge.
Currently there is no tool available that supports the extraction of an event log from a data source
that doesn’t require programming.
This thesis discusses important aspects to consider when dening a conversion to an event log.
The decisions made in the conversion denition in
uence the process mining results to a large
extend. Dening a correct conversion for the specic process mining project at hand is therefore
crucial for the success of the project. A framework to store aspects of such a conversion is also
developed in this thesis. In this framework the extraction of traces and events as well as their
attributes can be dened. An application prototype, called `XES Mapper’ or `XESMa’, that uses
this conversion framework is build.
The XES Mapper application guides the denition of a conversion. The conversion can be
dened without the need to program. The application can also execute the conversion on the data
source, producing an event log in the MXML or XES event log format. This enables a business
analyst to dene and execute the conversion on their own. The application has been tested with
two case studies. This has shown that many dierent data source structures can be accessed and
converted.

Keywords: data conversion, database, event log, process mining, process-aware information
system

Edit 01-04-2010 11:50: added XESMa execution steps