A smart link infrastructure for integrating and analyzing process data

Abstract

An often forgotten asset of many companies is internal process data. From the everyday processes that run within companies, huge amounts of such data is collected within different software systems. However, the value of analyzing this data holistically is often not exploited. This is mainly due to the inherent heterogeneity of the different data sources and the missing flexibility of existing approaches to integrate additional sources in an ad-hoc fashion. In this paper the Smart Link Infrastructure is introduced. It offers tools that enable data integration and linking to support a holistic analysis of process data. The infrastructure consists of easy to use components for matching schemas, linking entities, storing entities as a graph and executing pattern queries on top of the integrated data. We showcase the value of the presented integration approach with two real world usecases, one based on knowledge management in manufacturing from the LinkedDesign project and another one based on an agile software development process.