Alexander Tartakovski

Representation and Structure-Based Similarity Assessment for Agile Workflows

The dynamics of the market requires workflow management systems that support agile workflows - workflows which are flexible concerning the adaptation to innovations. This paper presents a case-based approach to representation and index-based retrieval of past workflows in order to give authoring support for adaptation of recent workflow instances. The utility of the presented methods is demonstrated by an experimental evaluation.

Agile Workflow Technology and Case-Based Change Reuse for Long-Term Processes

The increasing dynamics of today’s work impacts the business processes. Agile workflow technology is a means for the automation of adaptable processes. However, the modification of workflows is a difficult task that is performed by human experts. This article discusses the novel approach of agile workflow technology for dynamic, long-term scenarios and on change reuse. First, it introduces new concepts for a workflow modeling language and enactment service, which enable an interlocked modeling and execution of workflows by means of a sophisticated suspension mechanism. Second, it provides new process-oriented methods of case-based reasoning in order to support the reuse of change experience. The results from an experimental evaluation in a real-world scenario highlight the usefulness and the practical impact of this work.

MINLP Based Retrieval of Generalized Cases

The concept of generalized cases has been proven useful when searching for configurable and flexible products, for instance, reusable components in the area of electronic design automation. This paper addresses the similarity assessment and retrieval problem for case bases consisting of traditional and generalized cases. While approaches presented earlier were restricted to continuous domains, this paper addresses generalized cases defined over mixed, continuous and discrete, domains. It extends the view on the similarity assessment as a nonlinear optimization problem (NLP) towards a mixed integer nonlinear optimization problem (MINLP), which is an actual research topic in mathematical optimization. This is an important step because most real world applications require mixed domains for the case description. Furthermore, we introduce two optimization-based retrieval methods that operate on a previously created index structure, which restricts the retrieval response time significantly.

Retrieval and configuration of life insurance policies

When searching for the right life insurance product, one can either confide in her/his insurance broker or fill out lengthy questionnaires at Internet Portal sites before gathering a large amount of knowledge for interpreting the results. While the first alternative is risky, the second is cumbersome. In this paper, we present an approach that overcomes these drawbacks. It makes use of Structural Case-Based-Reasoning (SCBR) extended by the concept of generalized cases. Here, each insurance product is represented as a generalized case and therefore similarity assessment and indexing of case bases consisting of generalized cases is one of the topics of this paper.

Intelligent IP retrieval driven by application requirements

For the design of Systems on Chip it is essential to reuse previously developed and verified components, so-called Intellectual Properties (IPs), in order to meet nowadays requirements in reliability, correctness, and time-to-market. On the downside, deciding about reusing a third-party component in a design situation can consume substantial time and resources. This is especially true in situations where many potential candidates exist due to the large amount of functional, non-functional, and quality related aspects of each component. In order to facilitate the search for IPs in large IP assets, e.g. virtual marketplaces, we have developed the IP Broker tool suite that facilitates the development of IP retrieval solutions by making use of Case-based Reasoning technology. It enables integrators to search for IPs driven by their specific requirements. Applications based on IP Broker can be easily integrated into already existing company sites or portal sites.

Applying generalized cases to retrieval and configuration of life insurance policies

When searching for the right life insurance product, one can either confide in her/his insurance broker or use internet portal sites providing interactive assistance for finding suitable insurance products based on questionnaires. While the first alternative is risky, the second one is cumbersome because of many successive query formulations required. Since a single product is normally a tradeoff between customer requirements, the possibility of providing its priorities could speed up the search significantly. In this paper, we present an approach, which takes priorities in account, while searching for and configuring of insurance products. It makes use of Structural Case-Based-Reasoning (SCBR) extended by the concept of generalized cases. Here, each insurance product is represented as a generalized case what consequently allows the application of similarity assessment and retrieval techniques to the insurance domain.