Business Process

Businesses have to work together to survive/prosper. One of the biggest challenges any business faces is connecting with customers, partners, and practically the supply chain. Traditionally, this was achieved by papers being faxed, signed, and moved around. The practice of physically moving papers around was time consuming, not to mention inefficient, and led to delays. 

Thankfully the advent of computer networks has significantly facilitated routine tasks. Such tasks are automated, and achieved by software integration suites such as IBM Sterling Integration ( formerly known as Gentran). This software suite includes a modeler which is made for creating, managing, and monitoring activities These tasks are achieved by the modeling a series a activities, that when put together, achieve a desired activity. We call that a Business Process.

My next process will look closer into the world of Business Processes. For now, I will leave you with a valuable resource. Visit the www.worldofintegration.com to engage yourself in the community of people who deal with B2B integration.

Airline Command: A Basic Decision Making Model

Airline Command: A Basic Decision Making Model:

'via Blog this'

It's Called a Systemigram

DM2 - The DoDAF Conceptual Data Model:

'via Blog this'

Browsing around, I found somebody drawing a systemigram, and not making any acknowledgements regrarding the name. I think they should be noticed.

An explanation of Multi Criteria Analysis

Making Objective Project Comparisons and Rankings

Test Statistic?

A statistic is calculated from the sample. To begin with we assume that the hypothesis about the population parameter is true. We compare the value of the statistic with the hypothetical value of the parameter. If the difference between them is small, the hypothesis is accepted and if the difference between them is large, the hypothesis is rejected. A statistic on which the decision can be based whether to accept or reject a hypothesis is called test statistic. It is important to remember that a test-statistic does not prove the hypothesis to be correct but if furnishes as evidence against the hypothesis. Some of the test statistics to be discussed later are Z, t and Chi – Square.

The Way Forward: The View from the NASA Chief Technologist

Fuzzy Logic Explained

Today, I was reading a very short tutorial about Fuzzy Logic. It was particularly interesting because it was lecture notes from 1997, and despite the age, it was fresh and crisp and clear. Crisp, huh, what an interesting word to choose.

So the author explained fuzzy systems by a great example: lawn sprinkler system. I'm going to give you my 2 cent, quick summary of the paper.
1- you need two inputs. Example: a) outdoor air temperature b) soil moisture
2- Knowledge Base
a. Create membership function: For example. Cold is 30-47, Cool=40-70, normal=60-84,warm=75-94, hot=90-110
So one temperature membership function, and one moisture membership function. What's interesting here is that both these axis are calibrated to a y axis, called mu.


b. Make if then rules. The rule base needs to be verified by some sort of validated knowledge.

c. Fuzzification Module:
The name itself tells you alot about what is happeneing. Fuzzification of crisp inputs are made to fuzzy inputs. For example, outside temperature of 90 degrees would be transformed to 0.23 of "warm" in fuzzy terms.

d.Now it's time for decision making(rule strength). We use Min Max to make decisions.
example: if temp is hot (0.6) and soil is dry(0.27), then water duration is long. RS=0.27

e.Determine Fuzzy output: So if you have four outputs from D, then you go with majority. So if you have 2 long, and 2 mediums, your fuzzy output is long! The max of the rule strengths!

f. Lastly, it's time for Defuzzification: The purpose is to take the output of step e( fuzzy output), and come up with a crisp value. There are 4-5 methods to come up with a value, but in the lecture note, they use Center OF GRAVITY.

COG takes the area in abcdef, and finds the center of gravity. I'll hopefully have some time to add more ways to find the center of gravity.

The entire process is best captured in this diagram that I found on the internet.

2011, and back up again

After some trouble with the blogger skin that disabled the contents to each post, I went to choose a blogger template that would no longer hassle or hinder the mission of this blog. Please check frequently for updates.

Vitech Core, a new practice to implement the DoDAF Feature

Based on my understanding of how Core Vitech works with DoDAF, I can see that the services are provided in the columbs in the left. This is an intelligent and functional way to approach DoDAF and the information that can be provided and sought after in DoDAF.

In Rational Rhapsody, erveything is captured in the model. So each model represents the activity. It’s more image based, but Core does not work on any images at all. It’s all about relationships and hierarchy. But that might be because that I’m looking in ER diagram. 

This doesn't mean that one is better than other, i just think of it as another approach. Obviously I find Rational Rhapsody's approach more intuitive for the goals of DoDAF, but then Core does it differently. I need to spend more time and do more in analysis.

So Far, this is my candid assessment. 

Definition of System Engieering by John A. Thomas

http://www.youtube.com/v/1QRFk9f7rrU&amp

Challenges of acquiring a PhD

PhD students have to take responsibility managing their own learning and getting a PhD. They are also responsible for determining what is required as well as for carrying it out, and must always keep in touch in regular meetings with the supervisor. The student is the main person responsible for his/her PhD research. Doing a PhD clearly indicates that this is a student’s own research and work. The actual research to be reported used the case study method. Three Malaysian PhD students from three major disciplines of study, arts, science and social science, were interviewed in depth several times within a year. However only one case study which focusing on Science discipline will be presented in this article in order to achieve a better understanding of the story. All three case studies would make the present article too long. The objective of this research is to provide better guidelines for effective roles of a PhD Science student especially the foreign student. As a result, the research had developed the best effective roles in order for students to success in their study.