08/09/13

Business Information Systems

The ultimate goal of any information system is to support processes. The system itself is not to primary objective. Therefore, Business Information Systems (BIS) need to be designed and analyzed such that in the end the processes are conforming to certain rules (e.g., auditing or legal requirements), response times and flow times are a short as possible, costs are reduced, and risks are minimized. Therefore, the focus of this course is one the relation between processes and systems.

The language used in this course is high-level Petri nets as supported by CPN Tools. CPN Tools is used as a tool to test ideas, to do simple simulations and other forms of analysis, and to construct basic prototypes. The course focuses on transforming informal descriptions of business processes and systems into high-level Petri nets. Given an informal description, students should be able to map the control-flow perspective onto high-level Petri nets. Also mappings of the other perspectives (e.g., data, resources, organization, and applications) onto abstractions understandable by computer programs are considered.

For slides, exercises, a study guide, and additional pointers visit the course's website.

Process Mining

Process mining provides a new means to improve processes in a variety of application domains. There are two main drivers for this new technology. On the one hand, more and more events are being recorded thus providing detailed information about the history of processes. On the other hand, in most organizations there is a need to improve process performance (e.g., reduce costs and flow time) and compliance (e.g., avoid deviations or risks). This advanced course on process mining teaches students the theoretical foundations of process mining and exposes students to real-life data sets to understand challenges related to process discovery, conformance checking, and model extension.

For slides, exercises, a study guide, and additional pointers visit the course's website.

Business Process Management Systems

The ultimate goal of any information system is to support processes. The system itself is not to primary objective. Therefore, Business Information Systems (BIS) need to be designed and analyzed such that in the end the processes are conforming to certain rules (e.g., auditing or legal requirements), response times and flow times are a short as possible, costs are reduced, and risks are minimized. Therefore, the focus of this course is one the relation between processes and systems.

The language used in this course is high-level Petri nets as supported by CPN Tools. CPN Tools is used as a tool to test ideas, to do simple simulations and other forms of analysis, and to construct basic prototypes. The course focuses on transforming informal descriptions of business processes and systems into high-level Petri nets. Given an informal description, students should be able to map the control-flow perspective onto high-level Petri nets. Also mappings of the other perspectives (e.g., data, resources, organization, and applications) onto abstractions understandable by computer programs are considered.

For slides, exercises, a study guide, and additional pointers visit the course's website.

Workflow Managment Systems (not maintained)

This course introduces the basic concepts of workflow management. The emphasis is on modeling workflow processes and the characteristics of contemporary workflow management. Workflow processes are a specific type of operational processes typically associated with work processes in administrative environments. However, any case-driven operational process falls in this category. Workflow technology provides the functionality to support these processes. Since this technology is adopted in many enterprise information systems knowledge about these systems and experience in making and enacting workflow models is relevant for students in operations management.

For slides, exercises, a study guide, and additional pointers visit the course's website.

Business Process Intelligence

This course starts with an overview of approaches and technologies that use event data to support decision making and business process (re)design. Then the course focuses on process mining as a bridge between data mining and business process modeling. The course is at an introductory level with various practical assignments. Process mining provides not only a bridge between data mining and business process management; it also helps to address the classical divide between "business" and "IT". Evidence-based business process management based on process mining helps to create a common ground for business process improvement and information systems development. The course uses many examples using real-life event logs to illustrate the concepts and algorithms. After taking this course, one is able to run process mining projects and have a good understanding of the Business Process Intelligence field.

For slides, exercises, a study guide, and additional pointers visit the course's website.

Additional Courses

I have been teaching the following courses at the Technische Universiteit Eindhoven (TU/e):

• Process modeling
• Workflow management
• Specificeren van Informatie Systemen
• Systeemmodelleren 1
• Systeemmodelleren 2
• Logistical aspects of workflow management
• Business Process Management
• Business Process Management Systems
• Process Mining
• Business Process Intelligence
• Capita Selecta Architecture of Information Systems

Also consult the following information sources:

• OASE/Studyweb
• OWINFO