1. 1 An Electronic Concierge for Academic Advising Kuali Days :: Chicago May 13-14, 2008

2. 2 2 Session Objectives Raise understanding of the Concierge design concepts Share our vision of how it will technically / practically work Obtain input on other use cases Obtain ideas on technology options/solutions

3. 3 3 The concierge - why? Because we should –it is time to help end users Because we can –computer power is increasing.... We can build systems people love

4. 4 4 Student system history BC –paper based processes –information silos in separate departments –the customer had to help us run the institution SRS –on-line records, flat files, reports SIS –support for core processes in core departments –often more work & time for other users –we began to help the customer

5. 5 5 Integrated Circuit Transistor Vacuum tube Relay Electro- mechanical Increasing computer power logarithmic plot Ray Kurzweil, “The Singularity is Near” One insect brain One mouse brain One human brain All human brains Calculations per second per $1,000 10 55 10 35 10 15 10 - 5

6. 6 6 Helping the end user Institutional Information Requirements Personal Information Goals Information about the experiences of others Possibilities We should use:

7. 7 7 Concierge sits looking and listening for changes in a person’s state, institution rules, peoples experiences, etc. Concierge “sees” student accept offer Concierge concepts ability to register triggered by accepting offer of admission Concierge checks student info, program, required courses, elective opportunities, and guides student to solution that works for her process ends when student has complete program that meets her needs Rules engine Workflow Uses Information

8. 8 8 The concierge A solution that: is scalable can help all types of user releases staff, doesn’t replace them hopefully is artificially intelligent........at least not willfully foolish and unhelpful

9. 9 9 The requirements Three kinds of capabilities 1.The capability to guide a customer through a process in an intelligent manner 2.The capability to discover what business rules apply in a given business context 3.The capability to execute the business rules

10. 10 The underlying technologies The technologies that enable these capabilities 1.A Business Rules Management Service 2.A Workflow Service

11. 11 Business Service Integrating rules and workflow Business Service Workflow Service Drools Executable Rules Rule Execution Engine BRMS Rules Metadata Rules Get Agenda of rules Execute rule Get process Execute workflow

12. 12 How does this work in theory The system interactions A business service asks the BRMS: which rules need to executed in this context? –The BRMS answers with a list of rules (an agenda) The business service asks the Workflow service: what customer process needs to be run in this context? –The workflow engine answers with a workflow The business service coordinates running through the process and executing the rules

13. 13 The business context A high school graduate has just been admitted to Applied Science Workflow question: What is the process in this context? –Answer: create a timetable and register for courses BRMS question: what are the requirements for 1 st year Applied Science? –Answer: a list of requirements BRMS question: what rules need to be executed for registration? Answer: –Financial checks –Seat availability checks –Pre-requisite, co-requisite checks A practical example

14. 14 Discussion/questions Functional questions: Are there special use cases for the Concierge Technical questions: Is the Concierge an application that coordinates the BRMS and the Workflow engine -OR- Is it a patterns for creating applications