Aspect Oriented Business Process Modeling

This post (unlike my previous posts) is not about BI or Microsoft technology. I want to introduce a topic on which I am doing my research.

I submitted a paper about  Aspect Oriented Business Process Modeling (AOBPM) to BPMN 2012. Happily, my paper is accepted.

BPMN is an acronym for Business Process Model and Notation. This modeling notation is widely used to design business processes, and it is one of the most used notation in industry.
The BPMN models could be later mapped to Business ProcessExecution Language (BPEL) for implementation.

Aspect orientation is a paradigm which is defined for separating cross-cutting concerns from the core modules. I defined a new requirement for AOBPM and showed its relevancy through a case study. It helps process designers to design less complex, more re-usable, better maintainable process models. It also enables process developers to design process models in an agile way. Furthermore, it documents more knowledge of business processes in process models.

Stanford Machine Learning course

It has been always a true challenge for me to understand Data Mining in depth.

I have always problem to have a deep understanding of data mining algorithm, since all of them were ended to the mathematical formula that I have no idea about them.

Some times ago, I found the Machine Learning course at Stanford University. This is a free course, and I strongly recommend this course to ones who like to have a deep understanding of these algorithms.

This course will give you deep knowledge and understanding about different algorithm. it also gives you clue to distinguish which approach suits you the most in applying Data mining.

Finally, it is really awesome, since you should write some linear algebra programs that implement these algorithms. Therefore, it is not just theoretical, but also it is really practical.

I finish the course successfully, and the course will be repeated in January.

Other courses which are offered free are:

• Machine Learning
• The Lean Launchpad
• Technology Entrepreneurship
• Anatomy
• Making Green Buildings
• Information Theory
• Model Thinking
• Computer Science
• Software Engineering for Software as a Service
• Human-Computer Interaction
• Natural Language Processing
• Game Theory
• Probabilistic Graphical Models
• Cryptography
• Design and Analysis of Algorithms I
• Computer Security

These courses are offered by Stanford University and Berkley University.

MDX and DAX Formatter

Today, I watched a video about "Format MDX&DAX" online application. This application enables you to convert the MDX or DAX expressions into a readable expression. it would be usefull specially when you are tracing your application and using "Microsoft SQL Server Profiler".
You can see the video here.

link of application

BIDS Helper

I participate at Data Warehouse course as the teacher assistant this term.
I face lots of interesting questions and solutions by different students' groups when they asked questions for designing the solution for their assignment.
One interesting things that I have not seen before, was Dimension Health Check facility.

You can install the BIDS Helper adds. It provides you some new facilities that make your job as Data warehouse designer or developer easier.
You can see its facilities and find its link to download here:
http://bidshelper.codeplex.com

Process Mining

Information Systems register the events that are happed within them in log files in order to trace, recover and other purposes.
However, various systems that maybe co-operate with each other or work individually take part in a process. Process Integration is an important subject which could automate business processes.
Unfortunately, it is very costly to design business processes. In order to reduce this cost, we could get benefits of Process Mining.
Process Mining is a mechanism in which we could generate some sketch of business processes by applying data mining on the logs of various systems that take part in a process.

There is a research group in Eindhoven University of Technology that conducts this project, you can find more information on their site.

Today is the third year of this blog! I will get the data mining course next term, and I am very eager to learn and perform it in different contexts.

The Kimball Group Reader: Relentlessly Practical Tools for Data Warehousing and Business Intelligence

If you followed kimball articles, you may be interested to have all of them in an organized collection like a book.
Yes, Kimball published a new book based on these articles. I just could say that it is more than a collection of articles. Indeed, they provide a good description and tips about the whole data warehouse lifecycle using these articles.
I just took a look at it, and it was really facinate me to read it.

IBM Cognos 8 Report Studio Cookbook

I received a free copy of this book in order to write my standpoint on it.

I think if you are new to cognos, or if you worked with Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services, and want to migrate to cognos this book is very nice to follow.

Indeed, it makes the learning of cognos easier by providing lots of examples which are describes with lots of pictures.

Honestly, I think if you are professional in one reporting tools, you don't need any book, and you can just surf the tool and follow the help to overcome its difficulties.

By the way, if you are not a guru on any reporting tools, or if you do not have enough time to spend on the cognos to migrate from SSRS, I strongly recommend this book.

This book is not going to introduce any concept or any sophesticated techniques on reporting. However, it provides easy to follow step by step instructions to get familiar with the IBM Cognos 8 Report Studio.

Book Link