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Available Theses Proposals

If you are interested in a thesis, please contact the responsible mentor.
The listet theses are suggestions. Additional topics and own ideas can be individually discussed with a mentor.

Bachelor

• Business Process Similarity Measures - A Comparison

  Available for: Bachelor, Master
  Mentor: Dominic Breuker
  Further assistance: none
  Description:

  In the business process management literature, there are numerous approaches to measuring the similarity of business process models. However, these approaches are almost never compared against each other.

  Thus, the goal of this thesis is to choose two or more such measures of similarity and to apply them to a given set of process models (small implementation necessary). Thereby, one can identify differences in the results of these approaches and, if there are differences, one can reason about why they are observed.

• Analyzing Arguments of Strategies and Business Models - An Empirical Investigation

  Available for: Bachelor, Master
  Mentor: Dominic Breuker
  Further assistance: none
  Description:

  When presenting a corporate strategy or an innovative business model, communicating the underlying logic in a clear and precise manner is mandatory. To accomplish this, a well-grounded argumentation has to be developed and presented. Typically, this is an “unstructured” task. No specialized method is applied.

  Philosophers however deal with arguments and thought experiments in their daily work. As a consequence, techniques helping them in the analysis or argumentations have been developed decades ago. This raises the question if such techniques could help formulating strategies or business models.

  The goal of this thesis is to choose one of these techniques and to assess its usefulness. Your task is to develop a suitable experiment design. Applying it in a prototypical study shall deliver first empirical results.

• Portals at DURABLE

  Available for: Bachelor
  Mentor: Ralf Plattfaut
  Further assistance: none
  Description:

  - only available in german -

• Automated Planning of Production Orders using Rules and Moves (In cooperation with arvato Systems)

  Available for: Bachelor, Master, Diplom
  Mentor: Johannes Püster
  Further assistance: none
  Description:

  Planning of production orders is a complex procedure and dependent on a vast amount of variables. With increasing competition, the business requirements on such planning increase. Topic of the thesis is therefore to analyse the planning and optimization of production orders from a theoretical and practical point of view. The topic will be based on the theoretical funding of optimal production order planning using rules and moves. For the practical implementation of the optimization the rule-based framework Drools Planner will be used. The framework offers tight integration into JBoss and enables the solving of NP-Hard problems with meta-heuristics like Tabu-Search or Simmulated Annealing. The results will be applied to a concrete scenario in the print industry, where production processes and work schedules are represented using graph models. 

  The topic is provided with arvato Systems in Gütersloh and should be worked on during, or potentially before, a payed internship at the company. The internship therefore requires sufficient German skills. arvato Systems is a system integrator that offers standard software as well as individual solutions. With 1700 employees, the company is present at 25 locations worldwide. 

• Business Process Mining Algorithms - A Comparison

  Available for: Bachelor, Master
  Mentor: Dominic Breuker
  Further assistance: none
  Description:

  The relatively young research area „Business Process Mining“ can be defined as a combination of Business Intelligence and Business Process Management. Constructing a business process model given some data that is collected in the company is the concrete problem that is worked on. This constructed model then represents the process as it is actually executed in daily business, as compared to an ordinary model that represents how the designer envisioned the process. As-Is vs. To-Be comparisons could be made accomplished on such results.

  The goal of this thesis is to choose two or more of the algorithms that have been developed to tackle this problem, apply them to a data collection, and to ultimately assess the quality of the results (small implementation necessary). This way, strength and weaknesses of each of the algorithms shall be identified.

• Creating PPT presentation slides from online data sources - Concept and prototype

  Available for: Bachelor
  Mentor: Dr. Armin Stein
  Further assistance: Katrin Bergener
  Description:

• Innovations through IT consumerization from users and organizations perspective

  Available for: Bachelor
  Mentor: Sebastian Köffer
  Further assistance: Kevin Ortbach
  Description:

  The so called "Consumerization of IT", meaning the diffusion of private devices in corporate environments (e. g., iPhones, Facebook-Accounts, Dropbox, ...), is ubiquitous. The users appreciate the variety of functions and increased flexibility, resulting in a better alignment to their private lifestyles and their IT capabilities. Currently IT organization worry about these developments because the fear uncontrolled growth and the loose of process control. However, Consumerization of IT can also be the next stage for productivity gains, for instance through more efficient working employees. Strategies like "Bring your own device (BYOD)" may lead to cost savings through the reduction of IT equipment owned by the company.

  In the context of the bachelor thesis, the student, after a well-grounded literature review, shall analyze existing IT strategies to handle the consumerization trend. Futhermore the student is supposed to give recommanded action for IT organizations. The following research questions are relevant for this work:

  • What are the differences between the user and organizational perspective on consumerization of IT?
  • Which strategic options have organizations to handle the consumerization trend?
  • Which general trends for IT workplaces can be deducted from the consumerization of IT?

• IT Support and IT-Organization for knowledge workers

  Available for: Bachelor
  Mentor: Sebastian Köffer
  Further assistance: Kevin Ortbach
  Description:

  In the present working world, the number of knowledge workers is constantly increasing and currently higher than ever before. The term "knowledge worker" refers to employees with high expertise, which primary job function is related to use or generate knowledge information (following Thomas Davenport). Examples for knowledge workers are multifaceted, from airline pilots up to an assembly line worker. Their tasks require an advanced technical knowledge, they are non-routine, cognitive and hence need specific IT support. However, today's information system are perceived as inflexible and inefficient by endusers. This results in a lack of support for knowledge work.

  In the context of the bachelor thesis, the student shall put emphasis on the IT support for knowledge workers. After a well-grounded literature review to detect currently discusses trends for knowledge work in science and practice, the work can adresse the following research questions:

  • What are trends of knowledge work in science and practice?
  • How do requirements of IT workplaces change in respect to changes in knowledge work?
  • How should Enterprise IT be designed to support the future of knowledge work?

• Collaborative Business Process Management: Tool Support

  Available for: Bachelor
  Mentor: Ralf Plattfaut
  Further assistance: Sebastian Köffer
  Description:

  In the framework of the KollaPro project, in cooperation with partners from science and practice, we develop new methods for collaborative Business Process Management, in particular in the area of service engineering. The objective is the implementation of an internet-based software toolkit, to be used by practitioners.
  
  To increase productivity beyond service company boundaries, new tool concepts musst contain appropriate collaborative functions. The goal of the bachelor thesis is to identify and analyze existing software solutions, conducting a market analysis (e. g., Business Process Management Suites). Possible research questions are:

  • Which software tools at the market support collaborative Business Process Management?
  • How strong is the IT support over the distinct phases of service engineering (developing new or improved services)?
  • What are starting points for tool extensions or new developments.

• Conception of Layout Algorithms for Conceptual Models

  Available for: Bachelor
  Mentor: Hanns-Alexander Dietrich
  Further assistance: none
  Description:

• Implementing a literature analysis component for yourResearchPortal.com

  Available for: Bachelor
  Mentor: Matthias Steinhorst
  Further assistance: Tobias Heide
  Description:

• Organizational Capabilities for collaborative Business Process Management

  Available for: Bachelor, Master, Diplom
  Mentor: Ralf Plattfaut
  Further assistance: none
  Description:

  In a case study dynamic capabilities of an organization are analyzed. Here, special focus lies on the design of these capabilities.

• Structured Data in Research - Implementation of an OLAP Analysis for Research Portals

  Available for: Bachelor, Master
  Mentor: Tobias Heide
  Further assistance: none
  Description:

  The data of the research portal for hybride value creation http://www.forschungslandkarte-hybridewertschoepfung.de/en should be analysed with the opensource BI toll Mondrian.

  A configurable interface for transferring the data needs to be implemented.

• IT workplace trends in regard to IT consumerization and demographic changes

  Available for: Bachelor
  Mentor: Sebastian Köffer
  Further assistance: Kevin Ortbach
  Description:

  Demographic factors and technical innovations influence the design of IT workplaces. The so called "Consumerization of IT", meaning the diffusion of private devices in corporate environments (e. g., iPhones, Facebook-Accounts, Dropbox, ...), is ubiquitous. The users appreciate the variety of functions and increased flexibility, resulting in a better alignment to their private lifestyles and their IT capabilities.

  In the context of the bachelor thesis, the student shall give an overview about the topic and the related literature. Furthermore the following research question can be adressed:

  • What general trends of IT workplaces can be identified?
  • Which influence do have demographic criteria on user-centric preferences of particular IT workplaces?
  • How can organization align the individual user-preferences of IT workplaces with enterprise systems?

• Versioning in Web-based (Process) Modeling Tools

  Available for: Bachelor, Master, Diplom
  Mentor: Nico Christoph Clever
  Further assistance: Johannes Püster, Justus Holler
  Description:

  In the context of this thesis fundamentals, requirements and implementation concepts with respect to versioning of models in web-based (process) modeling tools shall be worked out. A focusing on the process modeling tool icebricks is imaginable.

Master

• Business Process Similarity Measures - A Comparison

  Available for: Bachelor, Master
  Mentor: Dominic Breuker
  Further assistance: none
  Description:

  In the business process management literature, there are numerous approaches to measuring the similarity of business process models. However, these approaches are almost never compared against each other.

  Thus, the goal of this thesis is to choose two or more such measures of similarity and to apply them to a given set of process models (small implementation necessary). Thereby, one can identify differences in the results of these approaches and, if there are differences, one can reason about why they are observed.

• Acceptance/Usability of Web-based (Process) Modeling Tools

  Available for: Master, Diplom
  Mentor: Nico Christoph Clever
  Further assistance: Johannes Püster, Justus Holler
  Description:

  In the context of this thesis/theses, acceptance respectively usability of web-based (process) modeling tools shall be worked out. Here, an empirical evaluation in cooperation with one or more partners from the industry seems reasonable. A focusing on the process modeling tool icebricks to outline the topic is contemplated. Partioning of target groups (consultancies who model processes together with/for end customers; end customers; etc.) is imaginable, likewise. The concrete scope of the thesis is to be defined in personal contact later on.

• Analyzing Arguments of Strategies and Business Models - An Empirical Investigation

  Available for: Bachelor, Master
  Mentor: Dominic Breuker
  Further assistance: none
  Description:

  When presenting a corporate strategy or an innovative business model, communicating the underlying logic in a clear and precise manner is mandatory. To accomplish this, a well-grounded argumentation has to be developed and presented. Typically, this is an “unstructured” task. No specialized method is applied.

  Philosophers however deal with arguments and thought experiments in their daily work. As a consequence, techniques helping them in the analysis or argumentations have been developed decades ago. This raises the question if such techniques could help formulating strategies or business models.

  The goal of this thesis is to choose one of these techniques and to assess its usefulness. Your task is to develop a suitable experiment design. Applying it in a prototypical study shall deliver first empirical results.

• Automated Planning of Production Orders using Rules and Moves (In cooperation with arvato Systems)

  Available for: Bachelor, Master, Diplom
  Mentor: Johannes Püster
  Further assistance: none
  Description:

  Planning of production orders is a complex procedure and dependent on a vast amount of variables. With increasing competition, the business requirements on such planning increase. Topic of the thesis is therefore to analyse the planning and optimization of production orders from a theoretical and practical point of view. The topic will be based on the theoretical funding of optimal production order planning using rules and moves. For the practical implementation of the optimization the rule-based framework Drools Planner will be used. The framework offers tight integration into JBoss and enables the solving of NP-Hard problems with meta-heuristics like Tabu-Search or Simmulated Annealing. The results will be applied to a concrete scenario in the print industry, where production processes and work schedules are represented using graph models. 

  The topic is provided with arvato Systems in Gütersloh and should be worked on during, or potentially before, a payed internship at the company. The internship therefore requires sufficient German skills. arvato Systems is a system integrator that offers standard software as well as individual solutions. With 1700 employees, the company is present at 25 locations worldwide. 

• Benchmarking/Key Performance Indicators in Process Modeling

  Available for: Master, Diplom
  Mentor: Nico Christoph Clever
  Further assistance: Johannes Püster, Justus Holler
  Description:

  In the context of this thesis a literature review shall presumably be carried out to work out key performance indicators which are utilizable in the area of process modeling. Subsequently, a (quantitative) evaluation at best in cooperation with one or more partners from the industry is envisioned to identify the actual demand. The focus of the thesis with respect to the area/purpose of application of process modeling is to be established later on.

• Business Process Mining Algorithms - A Comparison

  Available for: Bachelor, Master
  Mentor: Dominic Breuker
  Further assistance: none
  Description:

  The relatively young research area „Business Process Mining“ can be defined as a combination of Business Intelligence and Business Process Management. Constructing a business process model given some data that is collected in the company is the concrete problem that is worked on. This constructed model then represents the process as it is actually executed in daily business, as compared to an ordinary model that represents how the designer envisioned the process. As-Is vs. To-Be comparisons could be made accomplished on such results.

  The goal of this thesis is to choose two or more of the algorithms that have been developed to tackle this problem, apply them to a data collection, and to ultimately assess the quality of the results (small implementation necessary). This way, strength and weaknesses of each of the algorithms shall be identified.

• The Sum of Ratios Problem to solve DEA network models

  Available for: Master
  Mentor: Dominic Breuker
  Further assistance: none
  Description:

  Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) is a method to compare productivities of different companies or parts of companies with each other. For instance, one could compare branches of a bank or restaurants. It has been used in operations research for more than three decades. DEA relies on linear optimization to deliver its results.

  Driven by a trend towards network-like organizational structures numerous attempts to represent such interdependencies in DEA models have been made in the recent past. Handling the mathematical optimization problems required to do this can however be cumbersome as they are often non-linear. In particular, one often has to solve a problem known in mathematics as the "sum of ratios" problem.

  The task to work on in this thesis is to identify algorithms solving the sum of ratios problem and to evaluate their applicability to DEA network models.
  
  

• An experimental investigation on IT-Support for the knowledge work of the future

  Available for: Master, Diplom
  Mentor: Sebastian Köffer
  Further assistance: none
  Description:

  The research project "WeChange" deals with the enhancement of innovation capabilities in respect to demographic changes through the integration of social applications and IT-supported business processes. Demographic factors and technical innovations influence the design of IT workplaces. The present working world, the number of knowledge workers is constantly increasing and currently higher than ever before. The term "knowledge worker" refers to employees with high expertise, which primary job function is related to use or generate knowledge information (following Thomas Davenport). Knowledge work tasks require an advanced technical knowledge, they are non-routine, cognitive and hence need specific IT support. Further research is needed to figure out which IT functions and software solutions can enhance the performance of knowledge workers, for instance in the form of controlled experimental studies.

  In the context of the master thesis, the student shall, after a well-grounded literature review, design and carry out an experimental study about the performance measurement of knowledge workers. The experiment is supposed to evaluate the hypotheses and results of the research project. Students and employees of our practice partners can be used as subjects. Possible research questions are:

  • How can the performance of knowledge workers be measured?
  • Which design approaches for enterprise systems can increase the performance of knowledge workers?
  • Which differences exist between particular knowledge workers, when performing their tasks?
  • Which influence do have demographic criteria on knowledge work?

• Conception and Implementation of Layout Algorithms for Conceptual Models

  Available for: Master, Diplom
  Mentor: Hanns-Alexander Dietrich
  Further assistance: none
  Description:

  Concept and Implementation of Layout Algorithms for Conceptual Models

• Design and Implementation of a modelling environment to create structural pattern definitions for conceptual information models

  Available for: Master, Diplom
  Mentor: Matthias Steinhorst
  Further assistance: none
  Description:

  The goal of this thesis is to design and implement a modelling environment that serves to create structural pattern definitions for conecputal information models. The thesis will augment an already existing pattern matching algorithm. Please contact me for furhter information.

• Organizational Capabilities for collaborative Business Process Management

  Available for: Bachelor, Master, Diplom
  Mentor: Ralf Plattfaut
  Further assistance: none
  Description:

  In a case study dynamic capabilities of an organization are analyzed. Here, special focus lies on the design of these capabilities.

• Semantic Standardization of Information Models

  Available for: Master, Diplom
  Mentor: Matthias Steinhorst
  Further assistance: Maria Shitkova
  Description:

  When information models are created by regionally or timely distributed teams they can vary significantly in terms of the words and phrase structures used as element labels. To meaningfully analyze information models it is imperative that the resulting naming conflict be resolved and the models be semantically standardized. The aim of this thesis is to extend an already existing approach for resolving naming conflicts. The approach is currently restricted to resolve such conflicts at design time. It is thus not suitable for an ex post standardization of already existing model repositories. The approach is realized as a plugin for the metamodelling software [em] and is currently in a “proof of concept” stage. The thesis will focus on extending and refining the plugin so that it can be used in real-life model analysis scenarios.

• Scalable Information System Architectures - Prototypical Implementation of the Query Command Responsibility Segregation Pattern in [em]

  Available for: Master, Diplom
  Mentor: Hanns-Alexander Dietrich
  Further assistance: none
  Description:

  Question: How can we combine the NoSQL approaches with the relational approaches to achieve better scalability? Is it possible to replace the relational approach with the NoSQL approach without any disadvantages?

  
  The Query Command Responsibility Segregation pattern addresses the problem of the question and points to a solution which should be further investigated and prototypical evaluated. The evaluation can be made ​for example with the metamodelling software [em].

• Structured Data in Research - Implementation of an OLAP Analysis for Research Portals

  Available for: Bachelor, Master
  Mentor: Tobias Heide
  Further assistance: none
  Description:

  The data of the research portal for hybride value creation http://www.forschungslandkarte-hybridewertschoepfung.de/en should be analysed with the opensource BI toll Mondrian.

  A configurable interface for transferring the data needs to be implemented.

• Versioning in Web-based (Process) Modeling Tools

  Available for: Bachelor, Master, Diplom
  Mentor: Nico Christoph Clever
  Further assistance: Johannes Püster, Justus Holler
  Description:

  In the context of this thesis fundamentals, requirements and implementation concepts with respect to versioning of models in web-based (process) modeling tools shall be worked out. A focusing on the process modeling tool icebricks is imaginable.

• How does the IT workplace of the future look like?

  Available for: Master, Diplom
  Mentor: Sebastian Köffer
  Further assistance: Kevin Ortbach
  Description:

  The research project "WeChange" deals with the enhancement of innovation capabilities in respect to demographic changes through the integration of social applications and IT-supported business processes. Demographic factors and technical innovations influence the design of IT workplaces. The so called "Consumerization of IT", meaning the diffusion of private devices in corporate environments (e. g., iPhones, Facebook-Accounts, Dropbox, ...), is ubiquitous. The users appreciate the variety of functions and increased flexibility, resulting in a better alignment to their private lifestyles and their IT capabilities. Furthermore in the present working world, the number of knowledge workers is constantly increasing and currently higher than ever before. Knowledge workers perform multifaceted, non-routine and cognitive tasks and hence need specific IT support.

  In the context of the master thesis, the student should, after a well-grounded literature review, define design principles for the IT workplaces of the future. For detailed analysis and data generation, it is possible to conduct case study and expert interviews with our practice partners, involved in the project. The work can deal with the following research questions:

  • How does the IT workplace of the future look like?
  • Which influence do have demographic criteria on user-centric preferences of particular IT workplaces?
  • What differences exist between the user and organizational perspective on IT workplace design?
  • How do requirements of IT workplaces change in respect to changes in knowledge work?

• Between 'big data', process orientation and in-memory - Quo vadis Business Intelligence?

  Available for: Master, Diplom
  Mentor: Sebastian Köffer
  Further assistance: none
  Description:

  According to actual calculations the total amount of data available increases tenfold approximately every five years. Systems for automatic data recording (e.g., process-logging, RFID-chips) strengthen this trend. Hence almost all leading analysts value "Big Data" as one of the most relevant trends for the development of Business Intelligence. In many companies there will be a different perception of data volumes. New methods and concepts about handling with higher data volumes are ready for operations, for instance better technologies for data storage (In-Memory), enhanced data analytics (e.g. Process mining) or new agile procedures for Data Warehouse development.

  In the context of the master thesis, the student shall put emphasis on the operational consquences on business processes and IT workplaces. The exact topic of the thesis will be the result of a well-grounded literature analysis. Possible research questions are:

  • How does the Business Intelligence workplace of the future look like?
  • How can enterprises align their Business Intelligence to their processes or realize a process-embedded BI?
  • Which types of business processes will be essentially influenced by the upcoming Business Intelligence trends?
  • Which strategy should enterprises apply to make their Business Intellgence organization fit for the year 2020?

Theses Topics Overview

Diplom-, Bachelor- and Mastertheses

Guidelines and Templates for the Preparation of Theses at the chair of Prof. Becker

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