DPM-FT2011

Lecture: Data and Process Modeling (DPM)

Daten- und Prozessmodellierung (früher: Unternehmensmodellierung und -architekturen)

Prof. Dr. Martin Hepp Universität der Bundeswehr München, FT 2011

News

  • 2011-04-19: The Office of Academic Affairs scheduled the exam to July 4!
  • 2011-04-01: FT 2011 Web page has been set up.

Exam

  • WOW Bachelor students: Registration via the Office of Academic Affairs (Prüfungsamt).
  • WIN students: Contact us directly.
  • Diploma students: Contact us directly.

Date and Room: July 4, 2011, 15:00 - 16:00, 33/2216

Learning Goals

Computers are the most important tool for automating tasks in businesses. A key prequisite for using computers for automated processing is to create suitable models of all relevant objects and activities in the domain of interest, e.g. data structures and processes.

In this lecture and tutorial, students will learn the theoretical foundations and practical skills of designing, maintaining and using data and process models in information systems. First, the impact of modeling on the alignment between the IT and the business sphere of enterprises is being discussed. Then, common notations for conceptual structures and data (e.g. ERM, UML class diagrams, and ORM) and processes (e.g. Petri nets, EPCs, BPMN, and UML Activity diagrams) will be introduced and applied. Additionally, the impact of reference models on the integration of systems and organizations will be discussed.

Topics

  • Unit 1: Overview (April 4)
  • Unit 2: Entity-Relationship Modeling (April 11)
  • Unit 3: Entity-Relationship Modeling II (April 18)
  • Unit 4: Conceptual Modeling with UML Class Diagrams (May 2)
  • Unit 5: The Economics of Conceptual Structures for Data Interchange (May 9)
  • Unit 6: Process Modeling (May 16)
  • Unit 7: Ontology Engineering (May 23)
  • Unit 8: Think First, Then Model (June 6)
  • Unit 9: Object-Role Modeling (ORM) (June 20)
  • Unit 10: Exam Review (June 27)

General Information

  • Lecture: Mondays, 15:00 – 16:30, room 33/2216
  • Tutorial: Mondays, 16:45 – 17:30, room 33/2211
  • Instructor: Prof. Dr. Martin Hepp

Resources

Core Literature

  • [CiWi2005] Cimsion, Graeme C.; Witt, Graham C.: Data Modeling Essentials. 3rd. Aufl., Morgan Kaufmann Publishers, Amsterdam etc. 2005.
  • [KrOB2007] Krogstie, John et al. (Hrsg.): Conceptual Modeling in Information Systems Engineering. Springer, Berlin etc. 2007.
  • [Oliv2007] Olivé, Antoni: Conceptual Modeling of Information Systems. Springer, Berlin and Heidelberg 2007.

Additional Literature

  • [Diet2006] Dietz, Jan L. G.: Enterprise Ontology. Springer, Berlin / Heidelberg 2006.
  • [DuAH2005] Dumas, Marlon et al. (Hrsg.): Process-Aware Information Systems. John Wileay & Sons, Hoboken, New Jersey, USA 2005.
  • [GrRo2005] Green, Peter; Rosemann, Michael (Hrsg.): Business Systems Analysis with Ontologies. Idea Group Publishing, Hershey, PA, USA 2005.
  • [Guar1998] Guarino, Nicola (Hrsg.): Formal Ontology in Information Systems. IOS Press, Amsterdam 1998.
  • [HeLM2007] Hepp, Martin et al. (Hrsg.): Ontology Management. Semantic Web, Semantic Web Services, and Business Applications. Springer, New Work 2007.
  • [JaBu1996] Jablonski, Stefan; Bussler, Christoph: Workflow Management. Modeling Concepts, Architecture and Implementation. International Thomson Computer Press, London etc. 1996.
  • [PaSZ2006] Parent, Christine et al.: Conceptual Modeling for Traditional and Spatio-Temporal Application. Springer, Berlin and Heidelberg 2006.
  • [StSt2004] Staab, Steffen; Studer, Rudi (Hrsg.): Handbook on Ontologies. Springer, Berlin etc. 2004.
  • [Thal2000] Thalheim, Bernhard: Entity-Relationship Modeling. Springer, Berlin etc. 2000.
  • [GrRo2005] Green, Peter; Rosemann, Michael (Hrsg.): Business Systems Analysis with Ontologies. Idea Group Publishing, Hershey, PA, USA 2005.

Tools

Lecture: Schedule and Materials

Unit 1: Introduction

Slides as PDF:PDF (1 slide per page) requires password & username (given in class; if you need it, e-mail to mheppATcomputer.org)

Reading assignment:

  • [Oliv2007], pp. 1-36
  • [KrOB2007], pp. 1-18
  • Thomas Kuehne: What is a model?

Additional reading:none

Tutorial Materials:none

Unit 2: Entity-Relationship Modeling

Slides as PDF:PDF (1 slide per page) requires password & username (given in class; if you need it, e-mail to mheppATcomputer.org)

Reading assignment:

  • Hepp, Martin; Thome, Rainer: Datenmodellierung, in: wisu - das wirtschaftsstudium, 30 (2001) 7, (Studienblatt).

Additional reading:

  • Ferstl, O.K., Sinz, E.J.: Grundlagen der Wirtschaftsinformatik. Oldenbourg, München und Wien, 2001.
  • Chen, P.: The Entity-Relationship Model - Toward a Unified View of Data. ACM Transactions on Database Systems 1 (1976) 9-36

Tutorial Materials:

  • Create an ER model for managing music, e.g. a library of MP3 files. Mind the different roles of the very same artist!
  • See the sketches of solutions for the tutorials (PDF)

Unit 3 : Entity-Relationship Modeling II

Topics:

  • ER Notations
  • Real-world examples

Slides as PDF:PDF (1 slide per page)requires password & username (given in class; if you need it, e-mail to mheppATcomputer.org)

Reading assignment:

  • Hepp, Martin; Thome, Rainer: Datenmodellierung, in: wisu - das wirtschaftsstudium, 30 (2001) 7, (Studienblatt).

Additional reading:

  • Ferstl, O.K., Sinz, E.J.: Grundlagen der Wirtschaftsinformatik. Oldenbourg, München und Wien, 2001.
  • Chen, P.: The Entity-Relationship Model - Toward a Unified View of Data. ACM Transactions on Database Systems 1 (1976) 9-36

Tutorial Materials:

  • FT2009 exam task description
  • Create an ER model for the representation of bills of materials (BoM, "Stücklisten") (see slides for more details)
  • Create an ER model for the representation of tickets for events. Expand this to a system for the representation of tickets for points of interest (e.g. museums) and transportation services (e.g. subway).
  • Create an ER model for the representation of Airline flight plan & seat management
  • Create an ER model for the representation of student evaluations for instructors at universities or schools.
  • See the sketches of solutions for the tutorials (PDF)

Unit 4: Conceptual Modeling with UML Class Diagrams

Topics:

  • UML
  • Class Diagrams
  • Differences to ER Notations

Slides as PDF:PDF (1 slide per page) requires password & username (given in class; if you need it, e-mail to mheppATcomputer.org)

Reading assignment:

  • Jim Arlow and Ila Neustadt: UML 2 and the Unified Process: Practical Object-Oriented Analysis and Design (2nd Edition), Addison-Wesley Object Technology Series, Addison-Wesley 2nd ed, 2005, ISBN 978-0321321275

Additional reading:

Tutorial Materials:Convert examples from the previous units from ERM notation to UML class diagrams.

Unit 5: The Economics of Conceptual Modeling

Topics:

  • Network effects and data structures
  • Domain dynamics and maintenance efforts

Slides as PDF:PDF (1 slide per page) requires password & username (given in class; if you need it, e-mail to mheppATcomputer.org)

Reading assignment: Hepp, Martin: Possible Ontologies: How Reality Constrains the Development of Relevant Ontologies, in: IEEE Internet Computing, Vol. 11, No. 1, pp. 90-96, Jan-Feb 2007.

Additional reading:

  • M. L. Katz and C. Shapiro, "Network Externalities, Competition, and Compatibility," American Economic Review, vol. 75, pp. 424-440, 1985.
  • C. Shapiro and H. R. Varian, Information Rules: A strategic Guide to the Network Economy. Boston, MA, USA: Harvard Business School Press, 1998.

Tutorial Materials:

  • Explain the difference between a private and a global schema (conceptual model).
  • Why is it more challenging to create a conceptual model shared by many individuals and useful for multiple purposes?
  • Why is it more rewarding for data interchange along the value chain to use a single (or just a few) global schema(s)?
  • Explain how incentive problems can prevent the creation of a single global schema, even if such would create much more benefits than costs.

Unit 6: Process Modeling

Topics:

  • Process Modeling
  • Basic Flow Charts
  • Petri Nets
  • EPC
  • UML Activity Diagrams
  • BPMN

Slides as PDF: PDF (1 slide per page) requires password & username (given in class; if you need it, e-mail to mheppATcomputer.org)

Reading assignment:

  • Keller, G., Nüttgens, M., Scheer, A.-W.: Semantische Prozessmodellierung auf der Grundlage "Ereignisgesteuerter Prozessketten (EPK)". Veröffentlichung des Instituts für Wirtschaftsinformatik, Saarbrücken (1992)

Additional reading:

  • W.M.P. van der Aalst and M. Pesic: DecSerFlow: Towards a Truly Declarative Service Flow Language, Dagstuhl Seminar Proceedings 06291: The Role of Business Processes in Service Oriented Architectures, http://drops.dagstuhl.de/opus/volltexte/2006/829

Tutorial Materials:

  • Assignment sheet as PDF requires password & username (given in class; if you need it, e-mail to mheppATcomputer.org)

Unit 7: Ontology Engineering

Topics:

  • Ontologies in Computer Science
  • Ontology Engineering
  • Methodologies
  • Ontology Languages
  • Tools

Slides as PDF: PDF (1 slide per page) requires password & username (given in class; if you need it, e-mail to mheppATcomputer.org)

Reading assignment:

  • Uschold and Gruninger: Ontologies: Principles, Methods and Applications, 1996
  • Hepp, Martin: Ontologies: State of the Art, Business Potential, and Grand Challenges, in: Hepp, M.; De Leenheer, P.; de Moor, A.; Sure,Y. (Eds.): Ontology Management: Semantic Web, Semantic Web Services, and Business Applications, ISBN 978-0-387-69899-1, Springer, 2007, pp. 3-22.

Additional reading:

  • Staab, Steffen; Studer, Rudi (Hrsg.): Handbook on Ontologies. Springer, Berlin etc. 2004.

Tutorial Materials:

  • What is the difference between a data model and an ontology in computer science?
  • What are competency questions and how are they used in ontology engineering?
  • Explain the potentially large impact of ontologies for sharing, reusing, and combining data on the WWW.

Unit 8: Think First, Then Model

Topics: see slides ;-)

Slides as PDF:PDF (1 slide per page) requires password & username (given in class; if you need it, e-mail to mheppATcomputer.org)

Reading assignment: None

Additional reading: Thome, Rainer; Hufgard, Andreas : Continuous System Engineering. Vogel Verlag, Würzburg 1996.

Tutorial Materials:

  • Why is it often wrong to model the current state of affairs in a business, as far as processes and data structures are concerned?
  • Explain how the massive economies of scale for distributing software limit the economic feasibility of individual software development.
  • Explain how Business Process Reenineering repeats Taylor's mistake of ignoring change as a constraint on the economic feasibility of searching for individual process optimizations in a dynamic environment.

Unit 9: Object-Role Modeling

Topics:

  • Object-Role Modeling
  • Advantages
  • Examples

Slides as PDF:  PDF (1 slide per page) requires password & username (given in class; if you need it, e-mail to mheppATcomputer.org)

Reading assignment:

Additional reading:

Tutorial Materials: 

  • Explain why ER modeling is difficult because of the significant decoupling from natural language. How does ORM reduce the gap between language and conceptual structures?
  • Give examples for domain knowledge that cannot be modeled in standard ER diagrams but can be expressed in OWL.

Unit 10: Exam Review

Check here for the FT2009 exam (task description) and here for a possible solution.

No additional materials for this unit.