Designing Learning to Research the Formal Concept Analysis of Transactional Data

Transactional systems are core to much business activity; however leveraging any advantage from the data in these enterprise systems remains a challenging task for businesses. To research and discover the hidden semantics in transactional data, Sheffield Hallam University has incorporated Formal Concept Analysis (FCA) into two of its degree courses. We present a learning, teaching and assessment (LTA) method that integrates with this research. To make it reflect industrial practice and to further the state of the art of the research, this method includes the use of ERPsim. This large scale, real-world business simulation software is based on the Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) enterprise system by SAP A.G., a global business software vendor. Together with a mix of individual and group work approaches, FCA tools (namely FCA BedRock, In-Close and Concept Explorer) and comparisons with alternative approaches, it is emerging that FCA can fulfil an important role in transactional systems and enhance its role in Business Intelligence (BI).