Astrid Belder wins thesis award

Part of the business processes within SNS are being handled by automated processes. SNS uses the open source workflow engine jBPM for the automatic handling of these processes. These processes are defined within jBPM in the form of a workflow. This workflow is coupled with code, so that the process can take place largely automatically. It may occur that there's a small error in the code of the process definition, which can cause the running process to encounter problems and eventually crash. Whenever this happens, the automatic handling of the process is being stopped and the finalisation of the process is being allocated to a special department within SNS. This manual processing can be very time-consuming, especially when it involves a large number of long-running processes.

To reduce the required number of human actions and to safe time, it was very desirable that the bug in the code be fixed and that the processes were able to continue by means of an improved version of the process definition. For this reason, Astrid investigated the possibilities of altering the running processes in jBPM.

Astrid describes the situation at SNS very well in terms of organisation, relevant IT systems and a detailed problem definition. She subsequently suggests possible solutions for problems with regard to the "live adjustment" of problem definitions. Her descriptions of possible solutions and argumentations about certain choices in this regard testify to thorough knowledge of Java and related technology, as well as the capacity to convey this information to the reader in a clear and concise manner. Next to that she very convincingly demonstrates her practical skills in developing a Proof of Concept.

Because of her outstanding achievements in all these areas, Sogeti presented her with the thesis award 2016.

Astrid, congratulations!