Narasimha Bolloju

Integrating knowledge management into enterprise environments for the next generation decision support

Decision support and knowledge management processes are interdependent activities in many organizations. In this paper, we propose an approach for integrating decision support and knowledge management processes using knowledge discovery techniques. Based on the proposed approach, an integrative framework is presented for building enterprise decision support environments using model marts and model warehouses as repositories for knowledge obtained through various conversions. This framework is expected to guide further research on the development of the next generation decision support environments.

Enterprise Social Networking: Opportunities, Adoption, and Risk Mitigation

Social networks on the Internet are becoming extremely popular and have begun to change the way we live and work. Many enterprises are assessing the potential of exploiting the commercial opportunities of this technology. Although social networking commercial activities may be the next big productivity booster for firms, some consider such activities to be time wasters and security traps. Therefore, it is useful to develop a framework to consolidate the issues in adopting this technology. This article reviews the opportunities provided by enterprise social networking and proposes using the fit-viability model to evaluate concerns related to the successful implementation of enterprise social networking. We also examine the major potential risks and the mechanisms for their management.

Aggregation of analytic hierarchy process models based on similarities in decision makers' preferences

Abstract The analytic hierarchy process is widely used in both individual and group decision making environments. In this paper we investigate its applicability to model a specific class of decentralized decision problems where many decision makers take individual subjective decisions using locally available information. In such subjective decision making environments, it is neither possible nor appropriate to use group preference aggregation techniques to model the problem as a single group decision problem. An approach to identify homogeneous subgroups of decision makers based on similarities in preferences and to aggregate preferences within each subgroup is proposed. This approach is validated using employment preferences of 70 subjects modeled using the analytic hierarchy process.

Assisting novice analysts in developing quality conceptual models with UML

Knowing the kinds of modeling errors they are most likely to produce helps prepare novice analysts for developing quality conceptual models.

Analyzing the Quality of Domain Models Developed by Novice Systems Analysts

Assuring quality in capturing and representing the systems requirements is extremely important. This study is aimed at understanding errors frequently committed by novice systems analysts in developing domain models using the Unified Modeling Language (UML). Understanding of errors that affect the quality of resulting conceptual models and the relationships among those errors would be beneficial to both practice and research. This paper reports the results from analyzing the class diagrams produced by teams of novice systems analysts as part of different e-business systems requirements specification. The results include errors grouped into different quality categories and some interesting observations on relationships among errors from different categories.

Social commerce: an e-commerce perspective

Social commerce is spreading rapidly around the globe creating new and improved business models for conducting e-commerce. As an integration of social media marketing, Web 2.0 and e-commerce it is being viewed differently by different people and companies. In this paper we look at social commerce through e-commerce lens: namely as the delivery of e-commerce activities in social networks and by social software tools. Specifically, we identify those areas of e-commerce which are impacted by social commerce. The papers also identify the major issues related to adoption and use of the technology. Finally, we suggest some research issues related to social commerce.

Formulation of qualitative models using fuzzy logic

Formulation of qualitative models for complex decision problems exhibiting less structure, more imprecision and uncertainty is not adequately addressed in DSS research. Typical characteristics and requirements of such problems prohibit the development of DSS using knowledge based system development methodologies. This paper presents a methodology for formulation of qualitative models using fuzzy logic to handle the imprecision and uncertainty in the problem domain. The problem domain, in this methodology, is represented using problem-solving knowledge, environmental knowledge, and control knowledge components. A high level non-procedural language for representing these components of knowledge is illustrated using a project selection and resource allocation problem. The paper also describes the implementation of a prototype decision support environment based on this methodology.

Improving the quality of business object models using collaboration patterns

Project managers and systems analysts can tackle the challenges of representing system requirements using the object-oriented approach.

Benefits of supplementing use case narratives with activity diagrams-An exploratory study

Use case narratives modeling the complex functionality of a given system often extend for several pages due to the need to include numerous alternative scenario specifications. In such situations, it is difficult to ensure the completeness and validity of the process logic embedded in such lengthy text narratives. This exploratory study investigates the benefits of supplementing each complex and lengthy use case narrative with an activity diagram for analysts and clients during requirements gathering and analysis. Our findings indicate that the process logic in corresponding activity diagrams is more complete and offers a greater degree of validity than that used in use case narratives. In addition, the quality of the process logic in these artifacts is not negatively affected by a use case narratives length or complexity when they are used together to capture system requirements. Our research provides empirical evidence of beneficial improvements in the quality of these widely used artifacts that subsequently help eliminate or minimize inconsistencies among the requirements specified in different artifacts.

A knowledge-based object modeling advisor for developing quality object models

Highlights? Support the development of quality object models or class diagrams. ? Knowledge-based system extension to an open source CASE tool to suggest improvements. ? Empirical assessment of the knowledge-based system extension. ? The recommendations provided are helpful in achieving object model completeness. Object models or class diagrams are widely used for capturing information system requirements in terms of classes with attributes and operations, and relationships among those classes. Although numerous guidelines are available for object modeling as part of requirements modeling, developing quality object models has always been considered a challenging task, especially for novice systems analysts in business environments. This paper presents an approach that can be used to support the development of quality object models. The approach is implemented as a knowledge-based system extension to an open source CASE tool to offer recommendations for improving the quality of object models. The knowledge component of this system incorporates an ontology of quality problems that is based on a conceptual model quality framework commonly found in object models, the findings of related empirical studies, and a set of analysis patterns. The results obtained from an empirical evaluation of the prototype demonstrate the utility of this system, especially with respect to recommendations related to the model completeness aspect of semantic quality.