3D Gadgets for Business Process Visualization

1
3D Gadgets forBusiness Process Visualization

• A Case StudyBastiaan SchönhageAlex van
  BallegooijAnton Eliëns

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Introduction

• Central theme visualization
• The use of computer-supported, interactive,
  visual representations of data to amplify
  cognition (Card, Mackinlay, Shneiderman 1999)
• Goal
• Describe a case study of business visualization
  with thefocus on 2D versus 3D visualizations
• Illustrate how Java3D can be deployed for
  business process visualization

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Overview

• Using visualization to manage business processes
• Reusable collection of Visualization Gadgets in
  Java 3D
• Behaviors
• Visualization Gadgets
• Back to the case study Visualizing business
  processes in 3D
• Conclusion

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Managing Business Processes

• Domain
• Social security in the Netherlands
• Processing applications for welfare benefits
• Visualization gives better insight into
• Bottlenecks in the process
• Capacity needs
• Simulation
• Effects of possible interventions (such as
  increasing the staff)

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2D Visualization application

• Structure of the business process (phases an
  application goes through)
• Histograms indicate status of applications (phase
  in process and production week)

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Taking BP Visualization to 3D

• Why ?
• 3D has the potential of high information density
• Catch information concerning past, present and
  future in a single environment
• Combine different perspectives and data sources
  (database and real-time simulation output)
• How ?
• Deploy a collection of Visualization Gadgets in
  Java3D

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The Diva software architecture
Visualization
Simulation
Middleware
Visualization
Database
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The Diva Visualization Gadgets

• Behaviors
• Brushing behavior
• Menu behavior
• Modify behavior
• Visualization Primitives
• The Cone Tree
• 3D Histogram
• Graph

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The Cone Tree

• Requirements
• Large data sets
• Dynamic trees
• Easy manipulation
• Select and view nodes

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The 3D histogram

• Requirements
• Customizable bars
• Customizable axis
• On-the-fly updateable

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The Graph Gadget

• Requirements
• Represent structure and activities
• Collapsible (large hierarchical graphs)

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Back to the case study
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Process Graph

• The process graph visualizes activity as it takes
  place in the business process simulation
• The modify behavior allows for user interaction
  such as graph manipulation and drill-down

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Insight in Past and Present

• Drill-down reveals additional information (3D
  histograms)
• Each histogram is connected to a phase in the
  business process
• The histograms combine past and present

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2D versus 3D

• General argument
• 3D advocates
• Close relation with human intuition
• Potential to contain more (multi-dimensional)
  information
• 3D opponents
• Input devices are a big problem awkward control
  distracts users from primary tasks
• 3D apps look nice but are not better

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3D versus 2D in our case study
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Conclusions

• Visualization Gadgets
• Complete for our current purposes
• Java3D is a sufficiently rich and powerful API
• 3D Visualization of Business Processes
• 2D version is more easily accessible
  (uncomplicated visualization)
• 3D visualization more complex but combines
  information into a single scene (past, present
  and simulated data)
• The choice is up to the decision-makers

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Afterthought

• Wait till the Quake generationhas reached the
  management level