Involvement of Business Users throughout the Knowledge lifecycle

XML Holland 2010, AmsterdamRonald Heller – Product Architect

Agenda

• What is Be Informed?• The three main challenges• Task Oriented Editors• The knowledge lifecycle

• Real life project @ IND• Project description & Meta model• Review & validation: “Toverstaf”

• Wrap up & Questions

What is Be Informed?

What is Be Informed ?

• a platform for primary processes:• governments, insurance, pension funds and other administrative service

providers.

• one platform for all products and services:• “common process, common system”, “multilaw solution”

• a complete platform:• from information and advise to

application and decisions;• tailor-made case treatment;• both automatic decisions and

decision support.

• flexible, agile and compliant• it is all about the model;• policy management including

support for policy making.

• quick results (within months)

INTEGRATIE MECHANISMEN

Standardcases

DIGITAL FRONT OFFICE

SpecificCases

STRAIGHT THROUGH PROCESS

CASE MANAGEMENT

DECISION SUPPORTBI I

nter

face

XHTM

L

Portal Integration

Infrastructure

User(customer, employee)

BI Interfaces

WebServices(SOAP)

Messages(J MS)

Batch-int.(CSV)Others

(PDF, SMTP, …)Integration

InfrastructureESB

Business ProcessManager

B-2-B GatewayScan/OCR

CMS, localregistrations& external (basis) registrations

BI Interfaces

WebDav

SQL/J DBC

WebServices(SOAP)

ESB

Localcopybasedupon

triggers

Logging/ reports

DWH & reporting

DWHIntegration

ETLODS

Citizen Centric Government

Citizen Centric Government Framework

Standard Internet Infrastructure

Application Server Content Management RDBMS ESB Search

Different perspectives

Platform for knowledge intensive businesses processes

(Knowledge Infrastructure)

Record Apply Manage Validate Communicate Governance Analyze Account for Learn

Product Suite

Architecture

Service oriented Event driven Rules oriented Model driven

SolutionsVerticale-Gov

e-Collection

& fines

Vertical

e-Gov

e-Permits

Verticale-Gov

Point of Single

Contact

Vertical

e-Gov

e-Benefits

e-GovAdd-ons

Specific componen

ts

Interfaces

Metamodel

Reference processes

Life events

Examples of large knowledge infrastructures

Inform Advise Request

• Navigation• Index• Search

• e-Forms Ask only relevant

questions, Pre-fill data, Knowledge

Instruments

• Classification• Calculation• Decision

• Case Files Consultation Collaboration

Receive Consider Decide Communicate

• Inbox • Case Lists

• Case Files Collaboration Process Support Shared Case Files

• Operational decisions

Traceable decisions

• Documents View, exchange

• Assemble artifacts

Re-usable text blocks

Rule based Archive

• Customer & Partner Portals Notification Status update Collaboration

Registrations

Service interfaces

Examples of large knowledge infrastructures

Inform Advise Request

• Navigation• Index• Search

• e-Forms Ask only relevant

questions, Pre-fill data, Knowledge

Instruments

• Classification• Calculation• Decision

• Case Files Consultation Collaboration

Receive Consider Decide Communicate

• Inbox • Case Lists

• Case Files Collaboration Process Support Shared Case Files

• Operational decisions

Traceable decisions

• Documents View, exchange

• Assemble artifacts

Re-usable text blocks

Rule based Archive

• Customer & Partner Portals Notification Status update Collaboration

Registrations

Service interfaces

• An infrastructure for managing and running business processes:

• manage knowledge (laws, regulations) separate from applications and processes;

• fully automated decisions and decision support;• context driven information, advise and applications;• sharing semantics throughout networks of organizations;

• Knowledge is recorded in an ontology which is enriched with business rules:

• ontology, rules, content, context

Inform

Advise

Req

uest

ReceiveConsider

De

cid

e

Comm

unica

te

A model driven platform for running the entire business

All functions use the same ontology:• search;• decisions;• processes;• applications;• electronic forms;• files;• services;• ...

The model is

the

application

04/12/2023

The three main challenges

DataProcessKnowFunction

Application

Business

What do we do different ?

Separate

Standardize

GovernIT

Aimed at getting to grips with real world complexity and dynamics

Model – Run - Improve

!

Ownership &

Initiative

!

Approval & Acceptanc

e!

Analyse & improve

Process, Function, Knowledge and dataServices en events

Decision services

• KaaS: Knowledge as a Service offers:

• Standard services (validation services)

• But also services with an user interface

• Not only automated decisicions but also decision support

• Complete trace of the decision taken (data and rules)

• The same service can also be used in a (remote) portlet or a knowledge base.

• The references to the source (laws and regulations) is kept.

Some screenshots of the application

Task oriented Editors

Business User Friendly Representation

Business User Friendly Representation

Business User Friendly Representation

Business User Friendly Representation

Business User Friendly Representation

But we need even more…

Task oriented editors help a lot but we need more

• Business users tend to be technology averse, which is unfortunate because:

• Their involved is crucial in the whole management, aka the knowledge lifecycle

• They are the true owners of the companies knowledge• Because of this technology threshold they have difficulties talking to

knowledge engineers and vice versa

• So you need• A manner of publishing the implemented knowledge to a larger crowd (non

studio users)• A tool for reviewing knowledge models without the need for the studio• A manner of publishing in a non technical manner (no ontology, modeling

visible)• A manner of letting them test / try the developed services• Multiple points of view on the knowledge

Some titles of the same kind of solution:

• Documentation by Self Documenting Models

• Knowledge catalogus

• “Toverstaf”

• “Meneer de Uil Kennisbank”

• Validation & Review Knowledgebase

• “gewoon een setje slimme ontsluitingassen hoor”

Demonstrating the “Toverstaf @ IND”

Separating 'the know and the flow'

SIEBELORACLE ESB

SOAP SOAP

Commonmessage

model

The Know The Flow

This is the foundation of the solution, and because of this concept the IND received the NAF architecture award in 2009!

Toepassingseisen (1 - Bedrijfsproces)

0. Verkennen / oriënteren1. Toeleiden2. Kom ik in aanmerking voor…3. Aanvraagformulier

1. Bepaal Product2. Samenstellen product3. Levering & registratie

Dynamischbehandelplan

Ontvangen

Beslissen

Uitreiken

Informatie verzamelen

Toetsen

HandhavenKDW

1. Toets op volledigheid & aanvullen2. Toewijzen (risicoclassificatie)3. Beoordelen (inhoudelijk)4. Beslissen (“stempel”)

“Behandelen”

1. Classificeer gebeurtenis2. Bepaal activiteit(en)

1. Ontvangen en registreren

Toepassingseisen (2 – Kennisservices)

1

Kennisbank

7

(intelligent) formulier (op maat)

3

Kwalificatielijst

9

Bepaal Fabricaten

Beschikken

13

Dynamisch behandelplan/kwalificatieplan

12

Bepaal behandelprofiel

Handhaven.

11

8

Beslissen

Bepaal Verwijderbaarheid

15

14

Bepaal Verblijfstitel

2

Klantvraag ondersteuning

4

Bepaal hoogte leges

5

Bepaal kwalificatie

6

Bepaal formeel verzoek

10

Toepassingseisen (3 – Gebruikersgroepen)

Gebruikersgroepen

Vreemdeling / referent

Convenanthouder

Behandelaar

Senior behandelaar

Kennisanalist/kenniseigenaar

1

2

3

4

5

Dutch Immigrations: Knowledge architecture and primary process in sync

EnforceHand Out

DecideInformation gathering

Assess

ReceiveCustomer

Service Index

42 3 10

9

11

Decission

Formalrequest

Kwalification

6 7 8

Dynamictreatmentplan

“Treat”

1

5

13

TreatmentprofileDocumentationFees Permits

Compoundproduct

Title determination

Business services/

Activitiess

14+15

12

Intention

Procedure

Enforcementprofile

Dynamic proces

ReceiveGather Information

Test Decide Publish Post

application

DBP

Some numbers

• Project has been running over 2 years now• Fulltime 10-15 knowledge engineers working on translating law &

legislation into executable models.• >50.000 concepts

• So how do we keep all this manageable?• One good solid metamodel (basically the knowledge architecture)

• Iterative approach

• Architects – team leads – knowledge engineers• Work pair-wise, peer reviewing etc.• Think in components! Not only solution wise, but also within the knowledge

architecture• Patterns & validations• Deciding on Modeling Guidelines & Quality Criteria• …

Patterns: Quality Criteria

Patterns: Modelling Guidelines

Patterns: different types

• Metamodel & Business patterns• Advisory• Decisionmaking & permits• Healthcare• ..

• Patterns in Acquiring Knowlegde from legal sources

• different archetypes of law and how these are transformed in models with the help of patterns

• The profiling & Advise pattern• Demonstrated for life events

• Misc. Implementation patterns• Project specific implementation

patterns• Overall good practices

Published paper:Acquiring And Modeling Legal Knowledge Using Patterns P. Kordelaar, F. Van Teeseling, E. HooglandEKAW 2010, Lisbon

Published paper:Business Patterns in Ontology designF. Van Teeseling, R. HellerBIS 2009, Posnan

Published paper: Knowledge Applications for Life Events F. Van Teeseling, R. HellerESWC 2009, Crete

Business users?

• Patterns are great for knowledge engineers but also for:

• Exporting to other formats• Exporting to other structures• Creating other views based on the

same models

• Knowledge base for review and validation: Toverstaf

4 februari 2008 37

Published paper: Involving Business Users in Formal Modelingusing Natural Language Pattern SentencesJ. Van Grondelle, R. Heller, E van Haandel, T. VerburgEKAW2010, Lisbon

IND: Toverstaf

Toverstaf

• Self documenting models• Extra Ontsluitingsassen opgenomen• Test & validate the instruments that are also used within the

primary process• The same, no not copies, exactly the same

• Smart Exports for filtering/sorting

Using:- The standard instruments- Small changes to cocoon sitemap- Smart XSLT scripts for filtering en - serializing to Word/ Excell

DEMONSTRATION

Bedankt voor uw aandacht!