BusinessMiner 42en

BusinessMiner User’s Guide
Version 4.2
Windows
BusinessObjects TM
Version 4.2
BusinessMiner User’s Guide
No part of the computer software or this document may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical,
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Copyright © Business Objects 2000

All rights reserved. Printed in France.
Copyright © Alice S.A. 1996
Developed with the AliceTM technology from ISoft S.A.
Trademarks:
The Business Objects logo, BusinessMiner, BusinessQuery, and WebIntelligence are registered trademarks of Business Objects SA.
The Business Objects tagline, Broadcast Agent, BusinessObjects, Personal Trainer, Rapid Deployment Templates, and Set Analyzer are
trademarks of Business Objects SA.
Microsoft, Windows, Windows NT, Access, Microsoft VBA and other names of Microsoft products referenced herein are trademarks or
registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation.
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trademarks of Oracle Corporation.
All other product and company names mentioned herein are the trademarks of their respective owners.
This software and documentation is commercial computer software under Federal Acquisition regulations, and is provided only under the
Restricted Rights of the Federal Acquisition Regulations applicable to commercial computer software provided at private expense. The use,
duplication, or disclosure by the U.S. Government is subject to restrictions set forth in subdivision (c)(1)(ii) of the Rights in Technical Data and
Computer Software clause at 252.227-7013.
U.S. Patent No. 5,555,403
Part Number: 343-10-420-01
Edition: 3
Contents
Finding the information you need v

It’s in the Documentation ............................................................................................vi
About this Guide ........................................................................................................... x
Chapter 1 Introduction 11
An Overview of Data Mining .................................................................................... 12
BusinessObjects and BusinessMiner......................................................................... 17
The BusinessMiner Interface ..................................................................................... 22
Chapter 2 Building a BusinessMiner Project 27

Overview ...................................................................................................................... 28
Building a Project from BusinessObjects Data ........................................................ 32
Building a Project from an External File .................................................................. 38
Chapter 3 Modeling and Mining Data 45

Overview ...................................................................................................................... 46
Modeling Data ............................................................................................................. 47
Mining Data ................................................................................................................. 75
Printing BusinessMiner Projects ............................................................................... 84
Glossary
Index
BusinessMiner User’s Guide iii

Contents
iv BusinessMiner User’s Guide

Finding the Information
You Need
.................................................................................
In this preface
❑ It’s in the Documentation vi

A Documentation Service on the Web vi
Multimedia vii
Online Guides viii
Online Help ix
What to Do for More Information ix
❑ About this Guide x

Audience x
Conventions Used in this Guide x
BusinessMiner User’s Guide v

Finding the Information You Need
It’s in the Documentation

Now more than ever, BUSINESSOBJECTS documentation delivers product
information that is rich, convenient, and easy-to-use.
Whether you’re a novice or experienced user, BUSINESSOBJECTS documentation is
the place to go for discovering our products, exploring their features, or locating
precise information.
Product information has been substantially expanded to encompass not only
facts about product features but also tips, samples, and troubleshooting
instructions.
For your convenience, our documentation is available from all products in a
variety of formats including Windows online help, HTML, Acrobat PDF, paper,
and multimedia.
Documentation has been designed first and foremost with speed and ease of
navigation in mind. All the information you require is readily available just a few
mouse clicks away.
The next sections highlight new and key features of our documentation.
A Documentation Service on the Web

If you have access to the Internet, you can check out More Tips and Samples, the
BUSINESSOBJECTS documentation service on the World Wide Web. From here, you
can obtain the latest in updates, tips, samples, or troubleshooting.
Open to everyone with an Internet connection, this service lets you get the most
out of BUSINESSOBJECTS products and documentation. You can get there from
your browser with the following URL:
http://www.businessobjects.com/services/infocenter
From the Tips page, registered customer support contacts can explore the full
electronic version of the BUSINESSOBJECTS documentation set. It offers detailed
information on all BUSINESSOBJECTS products, updates, troubleshooting
instructions, tips, and much more.
Registered Developer Suite customers can download new documentation and
code samples.
vi BusinessMiner User’s Guide

Multimedia
BUSINESSOBJECTS documentation in multimedia includes Quick Tour and the
BUSINESSMINER tutorial, both of which cover the main concepts and features of
the products using images and animation.
Quick Tour
Quick Tour is a multimedia presentation that introduces new features in
BUSINESSOBJECTS. Aimed primarily at users updating from a previous version of
BUSINESSOBJECTS, it is also an excellent primer for first-time users of the product.
You can use Quick Tour as an accompaniment to the guide Getting Started with
BusinessObjects.
A description and illustration

of a product feature
A menu bar and buttons for

quick and easy navigation.
An actual screen from Quick Tour
The BusinessMiner Tutorial

This multimedia tutorial teaches novice users how to use the powerful desktop
datamining software, BUSINESSMINER. Each lesson in this tutorial has a narrated,
animated presentation which shows users how to answer a business question
using BUSINESSMINER. Users can then try out the demonstrated tasks themselves
by following the step-by-step exercises in the accompanying guide.
BusinessMiner User’s Guide vii

Online Guides
User’s Guides
All BUSINESSOBJECTS user’s guides are available as Acrobat Portable Document
Format (PDF) files. Designed for online reading, PDF files enable you to view,
navigate through, or print any of their contents. The full list of BUSINESSOBJECTS
guides is provided in the Deployment Guide.
From a PDF file, you can search for specific occurrences of a word using the Find
command, or navigate to the exact location of a topic by clicking on an entry in
the Index or Table of Contents.
During installation, the BUSINESSOBJECTS installer program automatically copies
these files to:
Business Objects\BusinessObjects 5.0\Online Guides\En
To view the pdf document you need to have the Adobe Acrobat Reader, version
3.0 or higher installed on your machine. This Reader is available on the
BUSINESSOBJECTS CD-ROM. You can also download it for free from Adobe
Corporation’s web site at:
http://www.adobe.com
viii BusinessMiner User’s Guide

Online Help
The extensive online help system consists of step-by-step procedures and
reference information for all the commands, toolbars, and options of the product.
For BUSINESSOBJECTS Windows desktop products, online help is available in the
form of .hlp and .cnt files that comply with the standards of Microsoft Windows
online help.
For WEBINTELLIGENCE products, the online help is available as HTML files that
that are accessible directly from the interface.
What to Do for More Information

If you cannot find the information you are looking for, then we encourage you to
let us know as soon as you can. Feel free to send us any requests, tips,
suggestions, or comments you may have regarding this or other BUSINESSOBJECTS
documentation. You can contact us by e-mail at:
documentation@businessobjects.com
To find out information about Business Objects products and services, visit our
web site at:
http://www.businessobjects.com.
BusinessMiner User’s Guide ix

About this Guide

This guide is about BUSINESSMINER, a data mining product.
Audience
This guide is intended for the user who would like to discover and use hidden
relationships in a database. The user needs neither a technical background nor a
knowledge of database structures. BUSINESSMINER presents information in
everyday business terms.
Conventions Used in this Guide

The conventions used in this guide are described in the table below.
Convention How Used
SMALL CAPITALS The names of all products such as DESIGNER,

SUPERVISOR, BUSINESSOBJECTS, WEBINTELLIGENCE.
This font The names of BUSINESSOBJECTS classes, objects and
conditions.
For example, Customer, Sales, Revenue, Service, etc.
This font Code, SQL syntax, computer programs .
For example: @Select(Country\Country Id)
x BusinessMiner User’s Guide

Chapter 1 Introduction
.................................................................................
In this chapter
❑ An Overview of Data Mining 12

A Historical Perspective 12
What is Data Mining? 12
Data Mining Applications 13
Data Mining Technologies 13
What is Usable Data? 15
Bibliography 16
❑ BusinessObjects and BusinessMiner 17

Modeling and Mining Data 17
The Demonstration Database 19
BusinessMiner and Other BusinessObjects Products 21
❑ The BusinessMiner Interface 22

BusinessMiner Windows 22
BusinessMiner Toolbars 23
BusinessMiner User’s Guide 11

An Overview of Data Mining

This section is an overview of the key concepts, terminology, and techniques in
data mining. An emerging and complex field, data mining is based on artificial
intelligence and advanced statistical analysis. Therefore, if you require more
detailed or technical information on the subject, you should refer to the
bibliography at the end of this section.
A Historical Perspective
Over the last decade, faster and improved devices for collecting and storing data
led to an exponential growth in the data found in corporate databases.
While advances in database technology provided the basic tools for handling
such massive and unprecedented volumes of data, they nonetheless did not
address the issue of transforming this data into useful knowledge.
It soon became evident that automated, powerful techniques were needed to
uncover the hidden relationships or patterns buried deep in the data. From this
need a new discipline, data mining, was born.
What is Data Mining?

Data mining is the analysis of data and the use of software techniques for
extracting hidden, comprehensible, and useful information from databases. This
information can take the form of patterns, trends, or rules that are implicit in data.
The term “data mining” is based on the analogy of mining operations in which
miners sift through large quantities of low grade material in order to strike gold.
In data mining, this “gold” is information, which was previously unknown or
indiscernible. For example, such information can be used to determine customer
buying patterns, market segment characteristics, or credit worthiness.
At the outset, data mining arose from the need to manage the explosion of new
information. Consequently, most commercially available data mining products
are designed with a view to manipulating voluminous data. These products tend
to be both expensive and cumbersome to use. In addition, these tools are difficult
to learn for all but a few well-versed users with scientific or technical
backgrounds.
Today BUSINESSMINER is the first data mining product designed and priced for
mainstream business users. This powerful data mining tool lets business people
extract useful information hidden in their data, whether in relational databases,
data warehouses, or flat files.
12 BusinessMiner User’s Guide

Data Mining Applications

Who needs data mining? Just about anyone who needs to know more about their
business, products, or customers.
Data mining can be integrated in numerous forms of analysis such as decision
support, prediction, and estimation. In addition, it can be applied to a wide range
of disciplines. These include but are not limited to:
• Marketing/sales: product analysis, buying patterns, sales prediction
• Finance: stock market prediction, credit assessment
• Insurance: risk analysis
• Medicine: research, cost analysis
• Engineering: expert systems, fault detection
Data Mining Technologies

Data mining encompasses technologies drawn from artificial intelligence and
advanced statistical methods. These technologies include:
• Statistics
• Cluster analysis
• Neural networks
• Data visualization
• Decision trees
Of the technologies above, BUSINESSMINER uses decision trees as the basic

technology for building its data mining model. BUSINESSMINER also uses data
visualization to help you understand your data.

Decision trees
A decision tree is a model that represents a knowledge structure as a sequence of
decisions. These decisions are depicted as a directed graph. The graph is built
from a data set, and is made up of nodes, paths, and leaves.
Each node in the tree represents a premise or condition. Each node is labelled
with a causal factor. The first node is called the root node. The final nodes are
called the leaves.
From the root node, the tree traces a number of paths, each of which leads to the
conclusion of a specific premise. A tree can lead to multiple conclusions. Such
conclusions need not be mutually exclusive; in fact, several can hold true at the
same time.
The diagram below illustrates a partial and simplified decision tree for classifying
four-legged animals.
Give dairy products = Cows

Large
Do not give dairy products = Horses
Herbivore
Climb trees = Squirrels
Small
Do not climb trees = Rabbits
Have 4 legs
Hibernate = Bears
Wild Do not hibernate = Tigers

Carnivore
Domestic Chase cars = Dogs
Do not chase cars = Cats
A decision tree about animals

Decision trees can be used for real life business applications. The next example is
a decision tree built with BUSINESSMINER. The purpose of this decision tree is to
analyze the credit worthiness or risk of specific types of bank customers. The
rectangular elements are the nodes; the lines joining them are the paths.
Among data mining models, decision trees are by far the easiest to work with.
Decision trees yield results that are precise, efficient, and clearly interpreted.
What is Usable Data?

As with all models, the accuracy of a decision tree depends on the quality of the
initial data. Models derived from incomplete, noisy, or irrelevant data inevitably
produce results that are distorted or even false. The key to a successful decision
tree is thus reliable data.
The data need not be voluminous. Although data mining arose as a solution to
understanding the flood of new information, recent developments make it
possible to obtain worthwhile and meaningful results from a smaller data set.
For example, when you use BUSINESSMINER with BUSINESSOBJECTS, you can do
much of the necessary preparation to make your data suitable for mining when
you design a BUSINESSOBJECTS universe.
As a data mining tool, BUSINESSMINER is designed for small representative slices
of data; it therefore focuses on the quality, as opposed to the quantity, of data.

Bibliography
• Adriaans, P., Zantige, D., Data Mining. Harlowe, England:Addison Wesley
Longman Limited
• Breiman, L., Friedman J., Olshen R., Stone C., Classification and Regression
Trees. New York, New York: Chapman & Hall
• Fayyad M., Piatetsky-Shapiro G., Smyth P., and Uthurusamy R. 1996.
Advanced in Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining. Menlo Park, California:
AAAI Press
• Quinlan, R. C4.5: Programs for Machine Learning. San Mateo, California:
Morgen Kaufmann Publishers

BusinessObjects and BusinessMiner

BUSINESSOBJECTS 4.0 is a powerful decision support tool that lets you access
information in corporate databases using familiar business terms. Once you have
the information on your desktop, you may wish to go even further by using
BUSINESSMINER to find the trends and patterns hidden in the data. In this way,
you may acquire knowledge that is vital to understanding your business or
customers.
BUSINESSMINER gives you the ability to leverage the force of data mining
technology right on your desktop. An easy to use, affordable, and
understandable product, BUSINESSMINER is fully integrated with the
BUSINESSOBJECTS product line.
Modeling and Mining Data

BUSINESSMINER is available either as a stand-alone product or as an add-in to
BUSINESSOBJECTS.
The stand-alone version of BUSINESSMINER can mine data stored in external files
such as Excel or text. When used as an add-in to BUSINESSOBJECTS,
BUSINESSMINER can mine personal files as well as data from many other sources
including relational databases, data warehouses, and OLAP servers.
Modeling the data

BUSINESSMINER automates the data analysis process and models the data
relationships as an easy-to-read decision tree.
A decision tree shows visually which factors are important in the relationships of
the data items. From this decision tree, BUSINESSMINER can derive the rules
inherent in the data.
Furthermore, you can use alerters to highlight critical conditions; for example, a
situation in which 90% of customers pay more than 60 days late.

Mining the data

BUSINESSMINER makes it easy for you to mine data using several methods:
• Discovery to find rules or patterns hidden in the data
• Visualization to present the information graphically
• What-if? simulation to predict the probability of a new situation based on the
current decision tree
• Segmentation to isolate groups having similar data

The Demonstration Database

A demonstration database is installed with BUSINESSMINER, and used in the
examples of this guide.
The database is a set of bank records relating to credit payment. Each record
contains details about the customers and the status of their credit accounts.
The status of a credit account can be balanced, 60 days late, or 30 days late. For
demonstration purposes, the names have been changed to low risk, high risk, and
high profit. This is because, from the bank’s point of view, a risk and a profit
factor is inherent in each type of status. These modified names appear in the
illustrations throughout this guide.
About the demonstration database

If you have set up BUSINESSMINER as a stand-alone product, the demonstration
database to use is the file bsmdemo.txt.
If you have set up BUSINESSMINER as an add-in to BUSINESSOBJECTS, the
demonstration database to use is a BUSINESSOBJECTS report. This report is stored
as the file bsmdemo.rep in the UserDocs folder of the BUSINESSOBJECTS files. You
can find complete and detailed information on reports in the BusinessObjects
User’s Guide.
The report was created from the BUSINESSOBJECTS universe stored as the file
bsmdemo.unv in the Universe folder of the BUSINESSOBJECTS files. For more
information on universes, refer to the Designer’s Guide.
The universe was created, via an ODBC connection, from the database built with
Microsoft Access. This database is stored as the file bsmdemo.mdb in the Demo
folder of the BUSINESSOBJECTS files. For more information on this topic, refer to
the MS-Access Database Guide.

The records in the demonstration database

The database contains 407 customer records. It represents a “slice of data” from
the bank’s main customer database. This data could pertain to the customers
managed by a particular account manager. The account manager may wish to use
BUSINESSMINER in order to understand the behavior of these customers.
Each customer record is described by 13 variables.
A first group of variables concerns customers' personal details:
• ID: an integer identifying the customer (only in the bsmdemo.txt file)
• Gender: male or female
• Marital status: married, single, or widowed
• Number of children: between 0 and 3
• Occupation: professional, manager, administrative, skilled, or unskilled
• Home: own or rent
The second group of variables gives financial information about the customers:
• Monthly expenses: between $253 and $1771
• Monthly incomes: between $1002 and $4488
• Monthly disposable: between $513 and $3299
• Checking account: yes or no
• Saving account: yes or no
• Credit limit: very low, low, mid-level, or high
• Credit account status: balanced, 30 days late, 60 days late

BusinessMiner and Other BusinessObjects Products

BUSINESSMINER is fully integrated with the BUSINESSOBJECTS product line. These
products are described in the following table:
Product Uses
BUSINESSOBJECTS • Query relational databases and data files

• Create reports
• Perform multidimensional analysis
• Submit reports for scheduled processing
• Start a BUSINESSMINER project using data from a
report
DESIGNER • Create universes

• Distribute universes to end users
SUPERVISOR • Set up users and user groups

• Grant users with rights to modules
• Set up the repository

The BusinessMiner Interface

The BUSINESSMINER interface is fully compliant with the standards of Microsoft
Windows. Like any Windows application, it features menus, toolbars, shortcut
keys, and online help.
BusinessMiner Windows
Inside BUSINESSMINER’s main window is the Project window, which is illustrated
on page 37. From the Project window, you can access BUSINESSMINER’s other
principal windows.
To access this BusinessMiner project item... Use this window...
A list of the objects in your data Objects window
A link to your data Records window
The decision trees that BUSINESSMINER builds Tree window(s)
Data mining results Rules window
Pictures and charts for visualizing your data Chart window

BusinessMiner Toolbars
BUSINESSMINER provides three toolbars:
• Windows Standard toolbar
• Model toolbar
• Mine toolbar
Model toolbar
The Model toolbar allows you quick access to some items on the Model menu,
and to display the tree browser and tree caption window.
Model Toolbar
Button Description
...........................................................
Build Full Tree
Build Root Node
Expand tree one level
Collapse tree one level
Expand selection

Collapse selection
Expand selection one level
Expand selection with
Display tree browser
Display tree caption

Mine toolbar
The Mine toolbar allows you quick access to the items in the Mine menu.
Mine Toolbar
Button Description
...........................................................
Discover rules...
Visualize...
What-if...
Segment
Displaying or hiding the toolbars

You can display or hide any or all of the toolbars.
1. From the View menu, select Toolbars.
2. In the Toolbars dialog box that appears, click the check boxes of the toolbars
you want to see. Click the checkbox if you want to display tooltips.
3. Click OK.


Chapter 2 Building a BusinessMiner
Project
.................................................................................
In this chapter
❑ Overview 28
What is a BusinessMiner Project? 28
Preparing and Obtaining Data: Your Gold Mine 29
How Do You Build a BusinessMiner Project? 31
❑ Building a Project from BusinessObjects Data 32

Using BusinessObjects to Prepare and Obtain Data 32
BusinessObjects Ensures Coherent Data 35
To Build a Project from BusinessObjects 36
❑ Building a Project from an External File 38

How Do You Build a Project from an External File? 38
To Build a Project from an External File 40
Setting Parameters for Text Files 41

Chapter 2 Building a BusinessMiner Project
Overview
This chapter teaches you about BUSINESSMINER projects: what they are and how
you build them. You will also learn about things you must do before building
projects, notably obtaining the data you need.
What is a BusinessMiner Project?

A BUSINESSMINER project is a file that provides a forum for analyzing your data.
It enables you to work with the data in order to discover the hidden relationships
that help you understand your business.
What’s in a project?
A project consists of data that you put in, and the results you obtain by analyzing
the data:
• The data you put in can come from a BUSINESSOBJECTS report, or from an
external file such as a Microsoft Excel workbook. The data in a project is
categorized as objects. For example, the values of the Customer object are
customer names.
• Once you have put data into a project, you obtain results by building a data
mining model, then performing analysis to discover relationships.
Note: This chapter deals with building a project, i.e., inputting the data. You can
find out about analyzing the data in Chapter 4.
Project file specifications

Project files are stored in the \BusinessObjects\UserDocs folder. There are
two types of files in a project:
File extension Contains
.alp The project’s objects, models, charts and rules.
.ald The raw rows of data imported into the project, i.e., the
records.

Overview
Preparing and Obtaining Data: Your Gold Mine

80% of successful data mining is preparing and obtaining data. Once you’ve got
the right data, you are ready to mine it in a BUSINESSMINER project. The golden
rule? Garbage in is garbage out.
This section describes the steps that ensure you get the right data, namely:
• Defining your goal
• Defining your data source
• Setting up your data source
• Obtaining the data.
Defining your goal

Before you use BUSINESSMINER to mine your data, you need to decide what you
want to know. For the best results:
• Define your goal in terms that will help your business.
• Determine which data is relevant to your goal. Is the relevant data available?
Does it exist in your database or personal files?
• Specify information you want to analyze in relation to the rest of the available
data. For example, a banker may wish to analyze the customers' credit account
status in relation to other information about the customers.
• Define the limits of your analysis so you use only relevant and representative
data. For example, a banker may analyze only the customers of one bank
branch rather than customers of all the bank's branches.
Defining your data source

BUSINESSMINER is open to a wide range of data sources, which fall into two
categories:
• Data from BUSINESSOBJECTS reports, and
• External files, which include Microsoft Access, Microsoft Excel, text and SPSS.
The data sources available to you depend on your BUSINESSMINER installation:
When BUSINESSMINER is installed as... The available data sources are...
An optional component to BUSINESSOBJECTS data, and external

BUSINESSOBJECTS files.
A stand-alone product External files only.

Setting up your data source

How you set up your data source depends on the data source you want to work
with. For example, if you are using BUSINESSMINER with BUSINESSOBJECTS, you
will need to design and query your universes appropriately.
For information on setting up... Refer to...
BUSINESSOBJECTS data “Using BusinessObjects to Prepare and

Obtain Data” on page 32.
External files “Setting up the external file” on page 38.
Obtaining the data

Again, this stage depends on the data source you are working with. The
following table describes how you obtain data:
If you are working with... You obtain data by...
BUSINESSOBJECTS data Creating a report in BUSINESSOBJECTS. This

involves building a query, which returns the
data to the report.
Once the data is in the report and the report is
open, you are ready to build your
BUSINESSMINER project.
External files Building a project in BUSINESSMINER. You

have to access to the external file, but it does
not have to be open.

Overview
How Do You Build a BusinessMiner Project?

Once you have prepared your data source, as described in the previous section,
you are ready to build a project. The following table gives a general description
of the project building process:
Stage Description
1. Inputting the data Using BusinessObjects Using an external file
The report containing The file must be

the data you want must accessible, but does not
be open. You then start have to be open. You
BUSINESSMINER by start BUSINESSMINER,
selecting the select File/New, then
BusinessMiner point to the file.
command on the
Analysis menu in
BUSINESSOBJECTS.
2. Deselecting objects Every column of data from your data source is

you don’t want available as an object in BUSINESSMINER. You can
deselect objects that are not pertinent in your
project.
3. Specifying the The object to analyze is the focus of your analysis.

object to analyze For example, to find out how customer profile
affects sales, you would set the Sales Revenue
object as the object to analyze.
Later on, when working in the project, you can
change the object to analyze.

Building a Project from BusinessObjects Data

This section describes how to build a BUSINESSMINER project from data in a
BUSINESSOBJECTS report. It also provides information on how to use
BUSINESSOBJECTS to prepare and obtain data.
Note: If you are using BUSINESSMINER as a stand-alone product, go to “Building a

Project from an External File” on page 38.
Using BusinessObjects to Prepare and Obtain Data

BUSINESSOBJECTS is the first query, reporting and analysis solution for business
users. BUSINESSOBJECTS makes it easy to access data thanks to universes, which
are created in the DESIGNER module.
A universe consists of classes and objects. It represents the data in your database
in everyday business terms. For example, the objects in a human resources
universe would be Names, Addresses, Salaries, etc. Classes are logical groupings
of objects. Each class has a meaningful name, such as Vacation (for objects
pertaining to employees’ vacations).
Each object in a universe maps to data in the database. In BUSINESSOBJECTS, you
obtain data by including objects in a query. The data appears in a report, and can
then be used in a BUSINESSMINER project.
This section provides some tips on:
• Optimizing universes in preparation for data mining
• Building queries to get exactly the data you need
• Using BUSINESSOBJECTS to obtain data in other ways.

Optimizing universes in preparation for data mining

Remember the golden rule? Garbage in is garbage out. In other words, poorly
designed universes will prevent users from building queries that retrieve the data
they need for data mining.
Universes can be optimized for data mining in the ways described below. For full
information on designing universes, refer to the Designer’s Guide and online help.
Creating measure objects to perform calculations at the database level
Measure objects return calculated, numeric values. For example, the Monthly
Disposable object is a measure object that returns the result of Net Monthly Income
minus Monthly Expenses.
In data mining terms, measure objects are vital because:
• They can provide the summarized data that users need,
• BUSINESSOBJECTS can create their own calculations in reports, but these cannot
be included in a BUSINESSMINER project. All calculated data that the user
wants to mine must be obtained by a query.
Creating summarized objects to group values
Objects that return a very high number of values can result in confusing,
unbalanced decision trees in BUSINESSMINER. The universe designer can group
values in an object, so that the object returns fewer, more general, values.
Example A summarized object

...........................................................
The database contains 300 names of car models. The full list of models could
make it difficult to obtain meaningful results in BUSINESSMINER. To get around
this problem, the universe designer creates a summarized object which groups
the models by type: sport, hatchback, RV, etc.
...........................................................
Creating predefined conditions to limit query results
Conditions limit query results. For example, the condition where marital
status=single returns data concerning single people only. Conditions are
important in data mining, because the best results come from well-tuned slices of
data.
Users can build conditions in BUSINESSOBJECTS, but the designer can help by
including predefined conditions in a universe. The user can then simply drop the
predefined condition into a query, instead of creating the condition manually.

Building queries for data mining

When you build your BUSINESSOBJECTS query, consider that you will analyze a
slice of the data. To that end, use your business knowledge to include only
relevant and representative data.
Below is a list of guidelines for building queries prior to data mining. For more
information on queries, refer to the BusinessObjects User’s Guide and online help.
• Dimension objects (text or date values) and measure objects (calculated
numeric values) are useful in data mining. Detail objects, such as ID codes, are
generally not useful.
• Conditions enable you to limit the data to be retrieved. For example, you can
use a condition to limit the result to customers from one city.
• Redundant objects can distort results. For example, in a query containing the
objects Revenue and Quantity, Quantity is redundant because Revenue is the
result of Quantity times Product Price. Choose only one of the objects,
(Revenue in our example).
• You can create your own objects, called “user objects”, if the universe does not
enable you to obtain the data you need.
Obtaining data in other ways in BusinessObjects

Using BUSINESSOBJECTS, you are not restricted to obtaining data by building a
query on a universe. The following table presents the other ways, referred to as
“data providers”. The ones you can work with depend on the BUSINESSOBJECTS
installation at your site, and on the rights the BUSINESSOBJECTS supervisor has
granted you:
Data providers Description
Stored SQL (Structured Query Language) scripts, saved and

procedures executable on your database.
Free-hand SQL SQL scripts written by end users.
Personal data Microsoft Excel, Lotus 1-2-3, dBASE and ASCII files.
files
OLAP servers Online Analytical Processing (OLAP) servers, which are
multidimensional databases that store summarized data,
ready for business analysis.
You can find detailed information on all types of data providers in the
BUSINESSOBJECTS online help.

BusinessObjects Ensures Coherent Data

Once you have opened the report containing the data you want to mine, you are
ready to build your BUSINESSMINER project. This section describes how
BUSINESSOBJECTS ensures that you import a coherent data set into your project.
When multiple microcubes are available

A microcube is a set of data returned by a data provider in BUSINESSOBJECTS. It is
also the structure that stores the set of data in a BUSINESSOBJECTS report.
A microcube contains columns of data, such as Year, Customer and Invoice Date.
It enables BUSINESSOBJECTS users to perform fast and powerful calculations on the
data in a report.
When you launch BUSINESSMINER from BUSINESSOBJECTS, the microcube from the
active report is imported into BUSINESSMINER. This process is invisible to you,
except when you start BUSINESSMINER and several microcubes are available. This
is the case when:
• The report contains multiple data providers, and therefore multiple
microcubes, or
• The report displays data from a query which returns multiple microcubes.
In these cases, BUSINESSOBJECTS prompts you to select the microcube containing
data you want to mine. Why? Because one microcube consists of a coherent data
set, which is exactly what you need for your BUSINESSMINER project.
Reports containing local variables

BUSINESSOBJECTS lets you create your own formulas and variables based on
existing report data. For example, a typical business need is a variable that
returns percentage of revenue per customer. Such variables are referred to as
“local variables”.
Local variables are stored in the report, but they are not available in
BUSINESSMINER. Only the columns of data in the microcube, i.e., those returned
by a data provider, are converted to objects for data mining.
Thus, if you need calculated data that is not available in the report, you must
obtain it by editing your query. For example, you can create a user object.
Tip: You can find detailed information on editing data providers and creating user
objects in the BUSINESSOBJECTS online help.

To Build a Project from BusinessObjects

1. In BUSINESSOBJECTS, open a report containing the data you want to analyze in
BUSINESSMINER.
2. Click the BusinessMiner button on the Standard toolbar.

If... Then...
BusinessMiner
BUSINESSMINER launches right Go to the next step.
away
The Microcubes dialog box appears Select a microcube, click OK then
go to the next step.
To find out why this happens, refer

to “When multiple microcubes are
available” on page 35.
3. In the New Project Wizard that appears:

You can... To do so...
• Exclude irrelevant objects, i.e., • Click an object in Specify objects

objects that have no influence to mine.
on your analysis. • Under Mine, click No.
• Specify the object to analyze, • Click the object in Specify the

e.g., Revenue is the object to output object to analyze.
analyze sales figures. • Click a different object in the list
that appears.
• Choose not to reassign an • Click an object in Specify objects

object’s unknown values, e.g., to mine.
when you know an object • Under Reassign Unknown Values,
contains many unknowns. click No.
4. Click Finish.
The new project appears in BUSINESSMINER, as illustrated on the next page.
Tip: In the New Project Wizard, avoid using Build a data mining model automatically.
You will get better results by building models interactively.
Refer to Chapter 4 for more information on building models.

A BUSINESSMINER project
a
b
c
d
e
f
a. The name of the project is taken from the BUSINESSOBJECTS microcube. When you
build a project from an external file, you name the project yourself.
The Project window displays folders that contain the project’s objects, records,
models, pictures and results. To open or close a folder, double-click it.
b. BUSINESSMINER objects are the categories of data in the project: Profession, Gender,
Marital Status, etc.
You can view all the project’s objects and their values, and you can also change
object labels, i.e., their names.
c. Records are the rows of raw data imported from your data source.
You cannot change records in any way.
d. Models are the decision trees you build in the project. So, until you build a model,
this folder is empty.
e. Pictures are the column and line charts you build from your data.
f. Results are the rules you discover by using the Discover Rules command (Mine
menu) on a decision tree.

Building a Project from an External File

The term “external file” refers to a non-BUSINESSOBJECTS file containing data you
can import into a BUSINESSMINER project. The file types available are Microsoft
Access databases, Microsoft Excel workbooks, text files and SPSS files.
External files are available to all BUSINESSMINER users. They provide:
• Rich data sources for using BUSINESSMINER as a stand-alone product, and
• An additional range of data sources for BUSINESSMINER users who also work
with BUSINESSOBJECTS.
How Do You Build a Project from an External File?

This section describes the steps required to build a project from an external file.
Setting up the external file

Before you can build your project, you have to set up the file you want to use. For
example, if you want to use BUSINESSMINER to analyze financial data from Excel,
make sure the workbook is up-to-date, accurate and available. Avoid using data
that has many unknown or erroneous values.
Selecting the file

BUSINESSMINER first prompts you to select the type of file you want (Access,
Excel, text or SPSS), then lets you browse to locate the file.
If you select an Access or Excel file that contains multiple tables or worksheets,
BUSINESSMINER prompts you to select the table or worksheet you want to import.
You cannot import multiple tables or sheets.

Setting parameters for text files

This stage is only necessary if you selected a text file. The parameters to set
include what to use as a separator (tab, comma etc.).
For full information on setting the parameters for text files, refer to “Setting
Parameters for Text Files” on page 41
Creating ordered symbolic objects

Objects whose values are text are referred to as “symbolic objects”. When you
build a BUSINESSMINER project from an external file, you can create ordered
symbolic objects by placing a symbolic object’s values in the order you want.
Ordered symbolic objects are treated as numeric objects. The advantage of this
feature comes in when you build decision trees. The following example illustrates
why.
Example An ordered symbolic object

...........................................................
The symbolic object Credit Limit has four values: mid-level, high, very low, low.
By turning Credit Limit into an ordered symbolic object, you achieve two things:
• You specify the order in which the values should be treated (very low to high).
• You can specify a threshold when building a decision tree, by requesting that
customers with very low or low be treated together, for example.
Moreover, BUSINESSMINER can use a mathematical relationship to separate the
values of Credit Limit as an ordered symbolic object, i.e., <=Low.
...........................................................
Specifying the object to analyze
The object to analyze is the focus of your analysis. For example, to find out how
customer profile affects sales, you would set the Sales Revenue object as the object
to analyze.
Note: Also at this stage, you can deselect any objects you do not wish to include
in your analysis. Objects you deselect in the external file will not be available in
the project. This is not the case when you build a project from BUSINESSOBJECTS.
Naming the project

The last stage is to name the project.

To Build a Project from an External File

1. Click the Start button on the desktop, point to Programs, then click
BUSINESSMINER.
2. Click the New Project button on the Standard toolbar.
New Project 3. Click the type of file (Microsoft Access, Text delimited, etc.) you want to use,
then click Next.
4. Click Browse, locate the file, select it then click Open.

The path to the file is indicated in the Specify a File dialog box.
5. Click Next. The next action depends on the type of file you selected:
File type Action
Access or If the file contains more than one sheet or table, select one.
Excel If not, go to the next step.
Text Set file format or file conversion parameters. For more

information, refer to page 41.
SPSS Go straight to the next step.
6. Deselect any objects you do not wish to include in the project, then click Next.
7. Change the order of the values of symbolic objects:

• Click a symbolic object, then under Type click Ordered Symbolic.
• Click Order.
• In the dialog box that appears, select a value and use the buttons to move
it to the position you want.
• Repeat for other values, then click OK.
This step is optional.
8. Click Next, then select the object to analyze.
9. Click Next, type a name for the project, then click Finish.
The project appears in BUSINESSMINER. You can find an illustration of a project
on page 37.

Setting Parameters for Text Files

When your data source is a text file, you must set parameters that let
BUSINESSMINER recognize the objects in the file. For example, you must indicate
the character used to separate objects and their values.
In the Access Data Wizard, BUSINESSMINER provides an overview of the file. You
use the information in the overview to set the necessary parameters.
Example Using file overview information to set parameters in a delimited text file
...........................................................
In the following illustration, BUSINESSMINER indicates that, in the text file, objects
and values are separated by commas:
This is the file overview.
In this case, you switch on the Comma check box, as illustrated.

...........................................................
BUSINESSMINER supports both delimited text files, and fixed-length text files.
With delimited text files, the objects are automatically available in the project,
whereas in fixed-length files, you must specify the objects you want to include.
This section provides:
• A table that explains each parameter you can set, and states whether it is
applicable to delimited files, fixed-length files, or both, and
• The procedure required to specify objects in fixed-length text files.

Parameters to set
The following table indicates what each parameter lets you specify. It also
indicates whether the parameter is relevant to fixed-length text files, delimited
text files, or both.
This parameter... Lets you specify... Fixed Delimited
length
Separator The character (tab, comma, ✔

etc.) used to separate values
Decimal separator The character (, or .) used to ✔ ✔

separate decimals
Format type Whether the file is ANSI or ✔ ✔

OEM
Text identifier The character used to identify ✔

an object name in the text file.
Name of object names Whether the first line of the ✔ ✔

on first line text file contains the names of
the objects
Identical consecutive That when two or more ✔
separators are unique separators are consecutive,
they are read as one
separator.
Scanned lines How many lines of the text ✔ ✔

file BUSINESSMINER scans.
BUSINESSMINER scans lines to
determine the type of an
object.
Width The number of characters for ✔

an object’s values.
Type An object’s type: date/time, ✔

numeric or text.
Name The name of the project. ✔ ✔

Specifying objects in a fixed-length text file

When your data source is a fixed-length text file, you must use the following
procedure to specify the objects you want to include in the project.
1. In the Data Access Wizard, illustrated below, read the information in File
overview:
2. Type an object name in the Name box.
3. In the Width box, type the number of characters for the object’s values. For
example, if the object is Gender, the number of characters is 6 because the
longest value of Gender is Female.
4. Indicate the type of the object in the Type box, then click Add.
5. Repeat the three previous steps until you have specified all the objects you
need, then click Next.


Chapter 3 Modeling and Mining
Data
.................................................................................
In this chapter
❑ Overview 46
❑ Modeling Data 47
Modifying the Building Options 48
Modifying the Display Options 53
Building the Decision Tree 62
Managing the Decision Tree 67
Reading the Decision Tree 72
❑ Mining Data 75
Discovering Rules 75
Visualizing Data Relationships 78
Performing a What-If? Analysis 81
Segmenting the Data 83
❑ Printing BusinessMiner Projects 84

Using Print Setup 84
Using Print Preview 85
Using Print 86

Chapter 3 Modeling and Mining Data
Overview
Data mining consists of two principal activities:
• Modeling the relationships among objects in the data
• Mining to explore and use those relationships
This chapter explains how to build a model and how to use it to mine the data.
The examples in this chapter are based on the sample database files bmdemo.rep
and bmdemo.txt, which are included on the installation CD.

Modeling Data
Modeling Data
BUSINESSMINER uses a decision tree as its data mining model.
Each node of the tree represents a condition that BUSINESSMINER has tested. The
branches starting from a node represent the different conditions of the test. The
first node in the tree is called the root. All the data is present in the root. The data
is successively split into the different branches to obtain a finer analysis. The final
nodes are called the leaves.
BUSINESSMINER builds a decision tree automatically if you so specified in the New
Project wizard or if you choose Build Full Tree from the Model menu. However,
you can build the decision tree yourself interactively, step by step, to better
control the way the tree is built.
BUSINESSMINER provides default build and display settings that apply whether
BUSINESSMINER builds the decision tree automatically or you build the tree
interactively.
The default settings are the most appropriate settings for a typical situation.
However, you can modify the way the decision tree is built and displayed to suit
the needs of your analysis.
Note: If you modify the building and display options in the project window, the
modifications apply to the entire BUSINESSMINER project, that is, to other trees
you build in this project.
If you modify the building and display options in a Tree window, the
modifications apply only to that tree.

Modifying the Building Options

When modifying BUSINESSMINER’s default building options to suit your needs,
you can:
• Control the size of the decision tree
• Choose the objects to mine and the object to analyze as the output
• Specify the priority of any objects that you already know.
Controlling the decision tree size

You can control the size of the decision tree by limiting its depth and by
specifying a minimum number of records per node.
The depth of a decision tree is the number of nodes from the current node to the
root of the tree. The root has a depth of 0. The first node has a depth of 1. The
deeper the node, the more conditions it has. Often, deeper nodes contain fewer
records. You may want to limit the depth of the tree so its deepest nodes still
contain enough records to provide information significant to you. If you do not
limit the tree depth, you may isolate cases based on a limited amount of data.
Assumptions you make based on this data may not be valid, since the data is too
limited.
The value you enter for minimum records defines a stop condition. When
BUSINESSMINER builds a decision tree, it does not expand a node that contains
fewer records than the number you specify here.
Grouping symbolic objects
When setting building options, consider the option Group symbolic values in the
Control tab. BUSINESSMINER examines all possible combinations of symbolic
objects, then determines whether combining (grouping) the objects is more useful
than considering the objects individually.
Grouping symbolic objects results in fewer nodes in a decision tree, which
increases the clarity or readability of a decision tree. However, it may conceal
pertinent information that is associated with each object individually rather than
with the grouped objects.
The commands Group and Ungroup on the Model menu enable you to
manipulate the symbolic objects within a node. These commands are described
in the section "Managing the Decision Tree" on page 67.

Modeling Data
To control the tree size:
1. From the Model menu, select Modify Building Options, then click the Control
tab.
The following dialog box appears:
2. Enter the maximum depth you want the decision tree to be.
This value must be a positive integer.
3. Enter the minimum number of records you want per node.
This value must be a positive integer.
4. If you do not want to group the symbolic values within a node, click Group
symbolic values to uncheck it.
5. Click OK.

Specifying objects and selecting output

To enhance your analysis of the database, you can modify your selection of
objects to mine and the output object, and specify whether to reassign unknown
values.
Reassigning unknown values
If you choose to reassign unknown values, BUSINESSMINER distributes them in
proportion to the known values in your database for this field. The advantage of
this selection is that the analysis is based on more records, giving you more data
to mine. The disadvantage is that the distribution of the known values may not
be representative.
If you choose not to reassign unknown values, BUSINESSMINER treats them as
known values, but with a special value called “unknown.”
Your decision to reassign unknown values affects the information displayed in a
node. If you reassign unknown values, the total number of records displayed in
the nodes may exceed the number of records that actually exist in the database.
Note: You can choose not to reassign the unknown values of all objects except
numeric objects. Numeric objects are always reassigned.

Modeling Data
To change the objects to mine:
1. From the Model menu, select Modify Building Options, then click the Objects
tab.
The dialog box that appears lists all the objects that were imported into the
project:
2. Select the objects you want to mine, that is, to use in the data analysis.
• For each object, specify whether or not to mine it (Yes or No).
• For each object, specify whether or not to reassign unknown values (Yes or
No).
3. Select one of the objects as the output object, that is, the object which interests
you the most.
You want to discover the relationship of the other objects to this output object.
4. Click OK.

Specifying object priority

You can select which of the objects you want BUSINESSMINER to use in the
analysis, and specify their priority. By so doing, you can draw upon your own
experience and knowledge of the data.
The priorities you set take effect only when you create a decision tree
automatically using the Build Full Tree command. If you expand an existing tree,
the priorities do not take effect; this makes it easier for you to develop the
decision tree as you see fit.
To assign priorities:
1. From the Model menu, select Modify Building Options, then click the Priority
tab.
2. Click on an object you want to prioritize from the list of objects in the left
column.
3. Click Add to move it to the Priority Objects column on the right.
4. Prioritize the objects in the right column:

• Highlight the object.
• Click the appropriate button to move the object to the top or bottom, or up
and down in the list.
5. When you are satisfied with the priority, click OK.

To remove all objects from the Priority Input Objects column, click Default.

Modeling Data
Modifying the Display Options

When modifying BUSINESSMINER’s default display options to suit your needs,
you can:
• Specify the information you want to see in the decision tree nodes
• Specify any extra information you want to see in the Tree window
• Display charts in the tree nodes
• Assign colors to decision tree nodes to alert you to situations of interest
• Modify the Tree Browser window
If you modify the display options from the BUSINESSMINER Project window, the
options are set for the entire project. If you modify the display options from the
BUSINESSMINER Tree window, the options apply only to the tree displayed.
If you modify the display options from the BUSINESSMINER Project window, the
Apply button in the display option tabs is not available because no tree is selected
and no Tree window is open. When you make a modification, click OK. A dialog
box appears. If you click Yes, the modifications apply to all the trees contained in
the project.
If there is no tree in the project, the modifications will apply to the next tree built.
When you select a tree, either in the project window or by opening a Tree
window, the Apply button is enabled, and the changes apply only to the selected
tree.

Specifying information to see in the tree nodes

1. From the Model menu, select Modify Display Options, then click the Nodes
tab.
2. Select the information you want to see in the tree nodes.

3. To apply the changes to the entire Project window, click OK, then click Yes in
the dialog box that appears.
To apply the change to the selected Tree window, click Apply for your change
to take place immediately, then click OK to close the dialog box.
Node Tab Option Description

...........................................................
Object to analyze The object to analyze.
Leaves only Displays sum and/or proportion of symbolic objects in

the decision tree leaves but not in the nodes.
Symbolic objects— Displays the number of records in each range.

Sum
Symbolic objects— Displays the proportion of records in each range as a
Proportion percent. For example, a node containing 100 records of
which 55 records are in the range called Married shows
55% as the proportion.
Number of records Displays the number of records used in the node.

Modeling Data
Condition Displays the condition analyzed in the node. The

condition is the premise that BUSINESSMINER is testing.
Other objects Allows you to select other objects you want to see in the
decision tree nodes. Seeing other objects provides you
with more information about the population of a
particular node.
Specifying extra information

If you want additional information about the analysis to appear in the Tree
window, you can specify the information you want to see. This information
appears in the window under the decision tree. The default settings are
Discriminating power, Object to analyze, and Number of records.
If you are applying the change to the selected Tree window rather than to the
whole project, select a node before you follow the steps below.
1. From the Model menu, select Modify Display Options, then click the
Information tab.
2. Select the information you want to see in the Tree window.
3. Apply the changes.

• To apply the changes to the entire Project window, click OK, then click Yes
in the dialog box that appears.

• To apply the change to the Tree window, click Apply for your change to
take place immediately, then click OK to close the dialog box.
The information for that node appears in the Tree window.
Information Tab Option Description

...........................................................
Discriminating power A measure of how significant the particular object is
in determining the value of the output object. It is a
number between 0 and 1, expressed as a decimal, that
BUSINESSMINER calculates to arrive at the output
object from the original information. The closer the
discriminating power is to one (1), the more
significant the particular object.
Object to analyze Displays the object used to build the current decision
tree.
Number of records Displays the number of records used in the node.
Node path The parameters BUSINESSMINER used to arrive at the

results displayed in the selected node.
Node depth The number of levels preceding the selected node.
Tree statistics Displays the maximum depth, number of nodes, and

number of leaves in the decision tree.

Modeling Data
Displaying a chart in the node

You can choose to display either a bar chart or a stacked bar chart within the
node, and select the chart colors to give you information at a glance. A stacked
bar chart occupies less space than a bar chart.
1. From the Model menu, select Modify Display Options, then click the Charts
tab.
2. Specify the object to chart.
3. Select the type of chart you want to see in the node.
4. To change the default color:

• Double-click on the color shown. A Color dialog box appears, allowing
you to change the color.
• Select a color, then click OK to return to the Tree Display Default Options
dialog box.
5. Check the box if you want to display the next distribution.

The distribution in the next level of the tree is the distribution of records,
based on proportion. If you choose to display it, it appears as a vertical bar at
the right side of the node.
6. To apply the change to the entire project, click OK, then click Yes in the dialog
box that appears.
To apply the change to the selected tree, click Apply for your change to take
place immediately, then click OK to close the dialog box.

Specifying alerters
You can assign colors to decision tree nodes and designate the meaning of the
assigned colors to alert you to situations of interest or alarm. To do so:
1. From the Model menu, select Modify Display Options, then click the Alerters
tab.
2. Specify the object for which you want to see an alerter.
3. Select a value that interests you.
4. Specify the proportions for the value.

The proportion, displayed as percentage, represents the distribution of the
population within a node. As you select the value’s lower range,
BUSINESSMINER adjusts the upper range automatically.
5. To change the default color:

• Double-click on the color shown. A Color dialog box appears, allowing
you to change the color.
• Select a color, then click OK to return to the Tree Display Default Options
dialog box.
box that appears.

Modeling Data
Modifying the Tree Browser window

1. From the Model menu, select Modify Display Options, then click the Browser
tab. The Browser dialog box appears:
2. Select the information you want to see in the Tree Browser window.
box that appears.
Browser Option Description

...........................................................
Display distribution Displays the distribution of records, based on
of next nodes proportion,
as a vertical bar at the right side of the node in the
Browser window.
Display alerters Displays alerters in the Browser window.
Display charts—bar Displays a bar chart in the Browser window.

chart
Display charts— Displays a stacked bar chart in the Browser window.

stacked bar

Additional Display Options

In addition to the display options described on the previous pages, you can
change the appearance of the fonts and specify whether you want to see codes or
labels.
Fonts
For each of BUSINESSMINER’s windows, you can change the kind of font, its style,
and size. To do so:
1. From the View menu, select Options.

The Options dialog box appears, as shown below.
2. Select the Fonts tab.

3. Select the window for which you want to change the fonts.
4. Specify the new font, style, and size.

Your changes appear in the Preview area of the dialog box.
5. When you are satisfied with your selection, click OK.

Modeling Data
Labels
You can specify whether you want to see codes or labels in BUSINESSMINER
windows. To do so:
1. From the View menu, select Options.

The Options dialog box appears.
2. Select the Labels tab.
The default selection is Labels.
3. If you prefer to see codes, check Codes.
4. Click OK.

Building the Decision Tree

BUSINESSMINER builds a decision tree automatically if you so specified in the New
Project Wizard or if you select Build Full Tree from the Model menu. However,
you can build the decision tree yourself, interactively, step by step, to better
understand and manipulate your model.
To build a decision tree interactively:
1. From the Model menu, select Build Root Node.

The Tree window appears, displaying the model BUSINESSMINER builds to
show the relationships contained in the data. Because BUSINESSMINER 4.0 uses
a decision tree model, the model appears in the Tree window.
2. From the Model menu, select Expand Tree One Level.

You can expand or collapse the tree one level without selecting a node. You
must select a node to activate the other menu commands.
3. Use the Model menu to build the tree.

Modeling Data
Model Menu
Command Description Enabled When
...........................................................
Expand Tree Expands the current tree by one Tree window is
One Level level. Uses the object that has the opened
highest discriminating power, or the
highest priority that you specified.
The next level appears to the right of
the existing levels.
Collapse Tree Collapses the current tree by one Tree depth is one or
One Level level. more nodes
Expand Expands the current tree from the A child-free node is

Selection selected node until the stop criteria selected
that you specified with the Modify
Building Options command are
fulfilled. See the section
“Controlling the decision tree size”
on page 48.
Expand Expands the current tree from the A child-free node is

Selection One selected node by one level. Uses the selected
Level object that has the highest
significance, or the highest priority
that you specified. The next level
appears to the right of the existing
levels. You can expand your
selection past the stop criteria you
have specified.
Expand Allows you to select the object for One node is

Selection With... the next decision rather than using selected
BUSINESSMINER’s automatic
selection. This command is useful
for exploring data relationships
about which you have special
knowledge or interest.

Expand Displays the tree using the object A node with

Selection With having the next highest children is selected
Next discriminating power. If you
continue to select this command, the
display cycles through all the
objects, so eventually you return to
the first object. The condition of the
selected node may change if you test
the same object again. When this
happens, BUSINESSMINER issues a
message to inform you of the
situation.
Collapse Collapses the current branch from A node with
Selection the selected node. children is selected
A Tree window

Modeling Data
In a Tree window, selected nodes are displayed with a darkened border. In the
illustration above, the node Marital Status was selected. Using this window, you
can view and manipulate the decision tree.
Expand selection with

If you want to explore data relationships about which you have special
knowledge or interest, you can select the object for the next decision rather than
using BUSINESSMINER’s automatic selection. To do so:
1. Highlight the decision tree node you want to expand.

2. From the Model menu, select Expand Selection With...
The Expand Selection With dialog box appears:
3. Select the object for the next decision.

If the object is numeric, you can specify the threshold. The Set Thresholds box
appears, as shown below.

4. Specify the thresholds, then click OK.

Modeling Data
Managing the Decision Tree

After the tree is built, you can use the other commands on the Model menu to
manage the tree.
Model Menu Description Enabled when
Command
Collapse Deletes the branch starting at the A node with

Selection selected node. children is selected
Group Allows you to combine symbolic More than one node

objects within a decision tree node. is selected
Combining objects may facilitate
your analysis by giving you a larger,
more representative, population in
the node. You can group only the
values of a symbolic object when at
least one node contains two
conditions.
Ungroup Splits symbolic objects that are A child node that

grouped within one decision tree contains more than
node into leaves that each contain one symbolic-type
one value of the object. As a result, object is selected
the branches after the selected
nodes are deleted.
Fold Collapses branches emanating from A node that has
the selected node for better children and is not
visualization of the rest of the tree. folded is selected
A plus sign (+) appears at the right
of the folded node. The folded
branches are hidden from view, but
are not deleted.
Unfold Causes a folded branch to reappear. A folded node is

selected
Rename Tree Allows you to change the The tree is selected

identifying name of the tree. in the project
window

Model Menu Description Enabled when

Command
Rename Node Allows you to add or change the A node is selected

identifying label of a selected node.
The label, when it exists, appears in
the upper part of a node.

Modeling Data
Copying a tree picture

In the Tree window
1. Click Edit on the menu bar.
2. Click Copy Tree Picture.

These actions copy the tree and place it on the Windows clipboard. You can paste
it into another application, such as Word.
Copying records
In the Tree window
1. Select a node.
2. Click Edit on the menu bar.
3. Click Copy Records.

These actions copy all the records in the selected node to the Windows clipboard.
You can paste them into another application, such as Microsoft Excel.

The Tree Browser

The Tree Browser, shown below, displays an overview of the tree, which helps
you navigate in the tree.
The part of the tree you see on the screen is surrounded by a frame in the Tree
Browser window.
To move the tree using the frame, press the left mouse button and drag the frame.
To scroll the Tree window, press the Control key at the same time you press the
left mouse button and drag the frame.
To move directly to a node, click on that node in the Tree Browser window.
To change the information displayed in the Tree Browser window, select Modify
Display Options from the Model menu, then click the Browser tab.

Modeling Data
Tree Caption Window

The Tree Caption window, shown below, displays the colors used for the alerters
and in the charts that can appear in the tree nodes. The upper part of the Tree
Caption window shows the node chart colors. The lower part shows the node
colors used as alerters.
To change the alerters, select Modify Display Options from the Model menu, then
select the Alerters tab.
To change the node chart colors, select Modify Display Options from the Model
menu, then select the Charts tab.

Reading the Decision Tree

The decision tree provides information in several ways. When you read a tree,
consider
• The levels of the tree
• The information within the nodes
• The alerters
Levels of the tree

The simplest way to read a decision tree is to look at what objects are tested at
each level in the tree. The closer the objects are to the root, the greater their
significance or impact on the value of the output object.
The decision tree shown below is looking for factors that explain the customers’
credit account status.

Modeling Data
You see that:

• Credit limit is the most significant object, and the interesting thresholds are
very low, low, mid-level, or high. Customers can be best separated into
groups of
• High profit —those who pay late, therefore pay interest
• Low risk—those who pay on time, therefore do not pay interest
• High risk—those who pay very late or not at all
The best separation, in this case, means that in each group of customers, most
of them have the same credit account status.
• Marital status is the second most significant object in deciding the status of the
customers’ credit account.
Node information
The nodes of the decision tree contain important information. You can select the
type of information to be displayed in each node of the decision tree. Refer to the
section titled “Modifying Display Options” in this chapter.
A first level of information is the number of data records contained in each node.
A second level is the distribution of the values of the output object at each node
of the tree. This distribution is presented as a percentage and optionally, with a
bar chart or stacked bar chart.
In the tree on the previous page, at the root node you see that in a total of 407
examples, 60.7% have a low risk status, 21.4% have a high risk status and 17.9%
have a high profit status.
The test on credit limit lets you conclude that, when the credit limit is low, very
low, or mid-level, the account status is:
• Low risk with a probability of 84.4%;
• High risk with a probability of 8.3%;
• High profit with a probability of 7.2%.

When the credit limit is high, the account status is:

• Low risk with a probability of 41.9%;
• High risk with a probability of 31.7%;
• High profit with a probability of 26.4%.
In this example, a high credit limit indicates a greater probability that customers
will be high profit or high risk.
Alerters
A third level of information is provided by the use of colored nodes, which you
can use as alerters. You can assign a color that corresponds to the number of data
records in a node that have a particular value. In the decision tree shown on page
72, the chart at the bottom of each node shows the color key for the low risk, high
risk, and high profit customers. In this example, when a node contains over 80%
of the high profit customers, the node is gold. With this coding, BUSINESSMINER
alerts you immediately to the nodes that contain the majority of high profit
customers. The objects that lead to the gold nodes describe these customers.

Mining Data
Mining Data
After you have constructed the model of your data, you can explore the
relationships it contains in various ways. This is called mining.
You can
• View the rules BUSINESSMINER discovered
• Visualize data relationships
• Create a “what-if?” analysis to assess a new case
• Isolate a segment of the data that is similar in some way
To describe BUSINESSMINER’s data mining capabilities, this section continues to
use the demonstration credit database example provided with BUSINESSMINER.
Discovering Rules
In the demonstration database described in Chapter 1, suppose you want to
understand the customers whose account status is High Profit in order to market
extra incentives. In this case, you want to find all the customers whose account
status is High Profit with a likelihood greater than 70%.
You decide to discover the rules that determine this population in your database
and generate a report that states these rules.
To generate a report showing the rules

1. Open a decision tree that is completely built; that is, all branches are expanded
to the maximum depth.
2. From the Mine menu, select Discover Rules.

The Discover Rules dialog box appears:

3. Select the output object, that is, the object about which you want rules.
4. Select the value about which you want rules.
5. Specify the threshold.

The threshold is the percent of the population that represents the output
object. In the credit data example, a threshold of 70% means that at least 70%
of the customers in the node have an account status of High Profit.
6. Click OK.
The Rules window appears, as shown below.
It lists the criteria used to classify the decision tree nodes and displays the
percentage of population in the node that meets the criteria.
Rules window
The Edit menu commands are active when the rules window is active. You can
edit this report, copy the data onto the Windows clipboard, and paste it into any
other application.
The first column of the Rules window shows the percentage associated with each
description. The second column shows the number of records in the description.
You can use this information to check the validity of the given rules.

Mining Data
For the Rules window shown above, the settings in the Discover Rules dialog box
are:
Output Object: Credit Account_Status
Value: High Profit
Sort: Increasing Order
Threshold: 70%
For each rule, the objects are linked by logical AND statements, and the values
are linked by logical OR statements.
The first rule shown above states that
• IF credit limit is high
• AND marital status is widowed or single
• AND Monthly disposable is greater than 2403
• THEN account status will be High Profit with a likelihood of 88.6%
The second rule shown above states that
• IF credit limit is high
• AND marital status is widowed or single
• AND monthly disposable is greater than 2403
• AND the customer rents, rather than owns, the home
• THEN account status will be High Profit with a likelihood of 96.9%

Visualizing Data Relationships

To help you visually investigate the relationships in your data, BUSINESSMINER
provides charts. You can display charts for all the data, or for a subset represented
by a particular node.
To display a chart:
1. From the Mine menu, select Visualize.

The Visualize wizard appears:
2. Click the type of chart you want to see.

Specify whether you want a three-dimensional chart.
3. Click Next.
The types of charts are described below, as they appear from left to right, top
to bottom in the Visualize wizard.

Mining Data
Type of Chart Description

...........................................................
Frequency/ Displays the frequency of the object as a histogram.
Symb
Density/Num Displays the frequency of a numeric object as a curve.
Differentiate Displays the frequency of a numeric object as a curve.

Density/Num Also displays the frequency curves for each value of
another object.
Differentiate Displays the frequency of the object as a histogram, but
Frequency/ divides each histogram bar as a function of the
Symb distribution of the value of another object.
Num/Num Plots the correlation between two numeric objects.
Differentiate Plots the correlation between two numeric objects but

Num/Num differentiates each axis with respect to the distribution
values of another object.
Differentiate The plots appear as a function of the distribution of a

100%/Num discrete object. The Y axis is normalized to 100% so that
you can compare proportions.
Differentiate Displays the frequency of a numeric and of a discrete

100%/Symb object. The Y axis is normalized to 100% so that you can
compare proportions.

4. In the next dialog box, shown below, select the object you want to plot for the
X axis, and, if appropriate, the object to use for the Y axis and the object against
which you want to differentiate the X axis object.
5. For charts of numeric objects, specify how you want the curves smoothed.
Low smoothing provides more detail; high smoothing provides less detail.
6. Click Finish.
The Chart window appears, as shown below. It allows you to visualize the
relationships in your data.
Chart window

Mining Data
Performing a What-If? Analysis

BUSINESSMINER allows you to perform a “what-if?” analysis using the
information in your database. For example, using the credit database, you want
to predict the probability of a new customer’s account status being High Profit.
To perform a what-if? analysis:
1. Open a decision tree that is completely built; that is, a tree in which all the
branches are expanded to the maximum depth.
2. From the Mine menu, select What-if?
The What If? dialog box appears:
3. Enter each value that BUSINESSMINER requests and click Set.

BUSINESSMINER displays the result of your what-if analysis and its probability
in the right side of the What If dialog box. The next question BUSINESSMINER
asks depends on your previous answer.
Note: When you do not know a value, click the Unknown value check box. This
causes the what-if? analysis to consider all the branches from the selected nodes
until the leaves. The result is a combination of the probabilities of all the nodes
In some cases, BusinessMiner will not be able to make a prediction because the
information is not available in the original data. In such a case, the error message
“Impossible to predict” appears.

4. Continue entering the values that BUSINESSMINER requests.

The question/answer session continues until BUSINESSMINER reaches the end
of its exploration of the branch in the decision tree.
You can change one or more of your answers and start from that point.
5. To start the question/answer session again, click Clear.

The question/answer session that produced the result shown in dialog box above
is as follows:
BUSINESSMINER:Enter a value for credit limit
Your response: high
BUSINESSMINER:Enter a value for Marital status
Your response: Single
BUSINESSMINER:Enter a value between 513 and 3299 for Monthly disposable
Your response: 2567
For these conditions, BUSINESSMINER shows the probability of high profit is
88.6%, the probability of low risk is 8.6%, and the probability of high risk is 2.9%.
These probabilities are the same as the percentage in the decision tree node that
contains only records fulfilling the conditions you specify.
A what-if? analysis is a way of arriving at the tree node containing all the
conditions that fulfill your what-if? situation, without having to look at the
decision tree.

Mining Data
Segmenting the Data

BUSINESSMINER allows you to use the decision tree to segment the data in order
to isolate a population that has similar conditions. Segmenting the data isolates,
or segments, the population in a node from all other populations, and allows you
to see groups that interest you. You can use this information in another
application to select only the segmented data records from a database.
For example, you can select a particular subset of high risk customers from your
credit database in order to take action against them. You may decide to take
action only against the customers who are high risk with a monthly disposable
income less than 2500 and who have one or no children.
To segment the data:
1. Open a decision tree.
2. Click the node for which you want the segmented information.
3. From the Mine menu, select Segment.

The Segmented Records dialog box appears, as shown below. It shows the path
to the tree to the node you selected, and the information common to everyone in
that node.
4. To save the information

• Click Save.
• Enter the path and file information in the Save As dialog box that appears.
• Click Save again.

Printing BusinessMiner Projects

BUSINESSMINER allows you to print all the decision trees, rules, and charts of your
project. It also lets you print information about the project itself, such as object
definitions, the list of tree names, or building options.
Using Print Setup

The Print Setup dialog box, shown below, is a standard Windows feature that
allows you to specify the printer, paper, page orientation, and other properties.
Refer to your Windows documentation for information about the standard print
features.
To use the Print Setup dialog box:
1. From the File menu, select Print Setup.

The Print Setup dialog box appears.
2. Make your selections, then click OK.

Using Print Preview

Print Preview lets you see how your results or decision tree will look when you
print it.
To open the Print Preview, select Print Preview... from the File menu.
To zoom in on your results or decision tree in Preview, click the left mouse
button.
To print the decision tree or results from Print Preview, simply click the Print
button. BUSINESSMINER prints your selection, closes Print Preview, and returns
you to the main BUSINESSMINER window.
To return to the main BUSINESSMINER window without printing, click the Close
button.

Using Print
BUSINESSMINER lets you print all the decision trees, rules, and charts of your
project. It also allows you to print information about the project itself.
The procedures for printing the Project window as well as the other
BUSINESSMINER windows appear in the next sections.
Printing information about a project

To print information about your project:
1. Click the Project window in order to activate it.
2. From the File menu, select Print.

The Print Project dialog box appears.


The Print dialog box appears. The Print dialog box is a standard Windows
feature that allows you to specify the printer, the number of pages and copies
to print, and other properties. Refer to your Windows documentation for
information about the print settings.

Printing decision trees, results, and objects

The procedure for printing a decision tree, results, or objects is identical:
1. In the BUSINESSMINER window, either click the window whose contents you
wish to print, or activate the window by double-clicking it from the Projects
window.
2. From the File menu, select Print.

The Print dialog box appears as shown on the previous page. It is a standard
Windows feature that allows you to specify the printer, the number of pages
and copies to print, and other properties. Refer to your Windows
documentation for information about the standard print facilities.
Tip: You may find that the nodes of a decision tree are easier to view if you print
them with the Orientation option set to Landscape. For large trees, you may wish
to set the Scaling option to less than 100%. The Orientation options (Landscape
and Portrait) and the Scaling option are located in the Print Setup dialog box.

Printing charts
To print a chart:
1. Click the chart window in order to activate it.

The following standard Windows dialog box appears. Refer to your Windows
documentation for information about the print settings.
2. Make your selections, then click Print.


Glossary
alerter Feature that enables you to automatically highlight values in

a decision tree.
child In a decision tree, a node that stems from another node. All
nodes except the root node are children. See also “parent”.
class A logical grouping of objects in a BUSINESSOBJECTS universe.
The name of the class, e.g., Customers, reflects the category of
objects in the class.
code The object names that describe the database information for
that column. You can view codes in the Objects window.
condition 1. The test, or premise, BUSINESSMINER uses for an analysis.
BUSINESSMINER tests the object to analyze against other
objects to show relationships, that is, how the other objects
affect the object to analyze.
2. Feature of a BUSINESSOBJECTS query that enables you to

retrieve limited data sets. Very useful for partitioning, as
you can build a project with a limited data set.
data mining The automatic detection of trends and associations hidden in
data. Can also be described as using machine learning
techniques in business applications.
data provider Mechanism that allows BUSINESSOBJECTS users to retrieve
report data from databases or data files.
See also “free-hand SQL”, “OLAP server”,“personal data
file”, “query”, “stored procedure” and “universe”.

Glossary
decision tree A representation of the successive steps of the data analysis.

Each node of the tree represents a condition that BUSINESSMIN-
ER has computed as having the highest discriminating power
over the object to analyze.
The first node in the tree is called the root. All the data is
present in the root. The data is successively split into the
different branches to obtain a finer analysis. The final nodes
are called the leaves.
depth The number of levels from the current node to the root of the
tree. The root has a depth of 0. The first level has a depth of 1.
The deeper the level of a branch, the more conditions the
branch has. Often, deeper nodes contain fewer records. You
may want to limit the depth of the tree so its deepest nodes
still contain enough records to provide information significant
to you.
designer See “universe designer”.
diapers and beer A popular anecdote which describes the power of data
mining. The anecdote recounts that a large supermarket chain
used data mining to discover that customers often bought
diapers and beer at the same time. This encouraged the
retailed to display the items together, increasing the sales of
both.
discovery Data mining feature whose aim is to find hidden trends and
associations in data. See also “rule”.
discriminating power A measure of how significant an input object is in determining
the value of the object to analyze. It is a number between 0 and
1, expressed as a decimal, that BUSINESSMINER calculates to
arrive at the object to analyze from the other objects. The closer
the discriminating power is to one (1), the more significant the
given object.
document BUSINESSOBJECTS file (extension .rep) that contains one or
more reports.
free-hand SQL Type of data provider in BUSINESSOBJECTS. Enables you to
write or open Structured Query Language (SQL) scripts and
run these against a database.

Glossary
incompatible object A BUSINESSOBJECTS query containing incompatible objects

returns two or more microcubes. In this case, you must select
a microcube when starting BUSINESSMINER from
BUSINESSOBJECTS.
input object An object whose influence over the object to analyze is
determined in a BUSINESSMINER project. For example, if you
are analyzing the effect customer age and profession has on
sales, Customer Age and Customer Profession are input objects.
Typically, a BUSINESSMINER project has several input objects.
integer object In a BUSINESSMINER project, an object whose values are whole
numbers.
intelligent binning A powerful BUSINESSMINER feature which automatically and
intelligently divides numeric values into “bins” based on the
range, values and distribution of the data.
label The name of an object as it appears in a project’s decision
tree(s). By default, an object’s label is the same as its code.
However, you can use the Objects window to change labels so
that they are meaningful to you.
leaves The last nodes in a decision tree branch.
microcube Set of data in a BUSINESSOBJECTS report. In 99% of cases, a
microcube corresponds all the data returned by a data
provider. (See “incompatible object”.)
When you start BUSINESSMINER from BUSINESSOBJECTS, the
microcube from the current report is automatically imported
into the project. You are only prompted to choose a microcube
if more than one is available in BUSINESSOBJECTS.
model Representation of the results of a process. BUSINESSMINER uses
the decision tree as its data mining model, to display the
relationships between data.
node Rectangular element of a decision tree in BUSINESSMINER. A
node represents the results of the test BUSINESSMINER has
carried out on the records in the parent node.

Glossary
numeric Type of object in BUSINESSMINER, whose values are numbers.

You can specify numeric objects when importing data from a
fixed length text file into a BUSINESSMINER project.
See also “integer object”, “ordered symbolic object” and “real
object”.
object A BUSINESSMINER data field. It corresponds to, or is derived
from, data in the database you are using. Each object has a
code, a label, a type, and a range. You can see this information
for each object in the BUSINESSMINER Objects window.
See also “object to analyze”.
object to analyze The object about which you want information. For example, if
you are analyzing the effect customer age has on sales, Sales is
the object to analyze.
You specify the object to analyze when you build a project.
You can, however, change the object to analyze later on.
Also referred to as “output object”.
OLAP server Type of data provider in BUSINESSOBJECTS. Enables you to
access data in Online Analytical Processing (OLAP)
multidimensional databases.
ordered symbolic Symbolic object whose values you have placed in the order of
object your choice. Only available when you build a project from an
external file, i.e., not from a BUSINESSOBJECTS report.
BUSINESSMINER treats ordered symbolic objects as numeric.
The advantage: BUSINESSMINER can use a mathematical
relationship to expand a decision tree with an ordered
symbolic object.
output object See “object to analyze”.
parent In a decision tree, a node from which other nodes branch out.
All nodes except the leaves are parents. See also “child”.
partitioning Choosing data which is most interesting for mining. This is
typically at least eighty percent of the work of data mining.
BUSINESSMINER offers business-aware partitioning through
the BUSINESSOBJECTS semantic layer, i.e., building queries on
universes to obtain meaningful data.

Glossary
personal data file Type of data provider in BUSINESSOBJECTS. Enables you to

build reports with data from text files, spreadsheets and
dBASE files.
prediction Data mining feature that uses existing data to predict near
future or present conditions. Making a credit check of new
customers by using data on existing customers is a good
example of prediction. See also “what-if? analysis”.
project Forum for your analysis with BUSINESSMINER. Consists of two
files: a .alp file, which contains the objects imported from
BUSINESSOBJECTS or from an external file, plus the decision
trees, charts and rules you build, and a .ald file, which
contains the records.
query The most commonly used type of data provider in
BUSINESSOBJECTS. Enables you to build reports by selecting
objects from a universe.
range A description of an object in BUSINESSMINER. For example, the
range for the No. of Children object is 0,3, indicating 0 through
3 inclusive.
real object Object in a BUSINESSMINER project whose values are numeric
with decimal places.
records The rows of raw data imported into a BUSINESSMINER project.
report The data displayed in one tab of a BUSINESSOBJECTS document.
root The first node of the decision tree. All the data to be analyzed
is present in the root.
rule The result of an analysis whose aim is to discover trends and
associations in data. Obtained by the Discover Rules
command (Mine menu) in BUSINESSMINER.
sampling Technique that takes a random sample of data in order to
reduce the size of the data set to mine.
segmentation Data mining feature that defines a subset of data. Extremely
useful in any application requiring a precise description of
customer groups, such as targeted marketing. BUSINESSMINER
offers segmentation with the Segment command (Mine
menu).

Glossary
stored procedure Type of data provider in BUSINESSOBJECTS. Enables you to

build reports by running predefined SQL queries on certain
types of databases (SYBASE, for example).
supervisor User of the BUSINESSOBJECTS SUPERVISOR module. Responsible
for setting up and managing user rights and security.
symbolic object Type of object in BUSINESSMINER, whose values are text. The
Marital Status object is a symbolic object because its values are
text (married, single, divorced, widowed.)
See also “ordered symbolic object”.
threshold Numeric delimiters that BUSINESSMINER calculates automati-
cally as part of a condition.
Also, the percent of the population in a decision tree node that
represents a particular value when you mine to discover rules.
For example, if your object to analyze is Credit Account Status
and you are interested in customers whose value is high
profit, a threshold of 70% means that at least 70% of the
population in the node is high profit.
type A characteristic of an object. BUSINESSMINER supports the
following types of objects: symbolic, ordered symbolic,
integer, real, date, time, date and time.
universe In BUSINESSOBJECTS, the semantic layer between the user and
a database. A universe consists of classes and objects. The
objects map to data in the database, and enable users to build
queries on the universe when creating reports.
universe designer User of the BUSINESSOBJECTS DESIGNER module. Responsible
for creating universes and distributing these to end users.
Also referred to as “designer”.
unknown value Value of a BUSINESSMINER object which is either missing or
wrongly entered. BUSINESSMINER by default reassigns
unknown values based on the object’s known values.
user object In a BUSINESSOBJECTS universe, an object created by an end
user, not by the universe designer. Enables users to customize
a universe to obtain the data they need, for example by
making calculations.

Glossary
visualization Data mining feature which enables you to view data relation-
ships graphically. In BUSINESSMINER, you can visualize results
in line charts and column charts.
what-if? analysis Data mining feature which enables you to input data that is
then tested against the findings you have already made. For
example, in BUSINESSMINER you can enter data about a
customer to establish their credit risk status, based on the
results you have already obtained from your decision tree.

Glossary

Index
A BusinessObjects data providers 34

documentation vi–ix free-hand SQL, defined 34
alerters 74
BusinessMiner Tutorial vii OLAP server, defined 34
colors in Caption window 71
displaying in Browser documentation service on the personal data files, defined 34
web vi queries 34
window 59
Guides in PDF viii stored procedures, defined 34
specifying 58
multimedia presentations vii data sources for data mining 29
obtaining more information ix decision trees
B online help ix building 62–66
Build Full Tree command 62
Quick Tour vii building automatically 47
building options 48–52 building interactively 47, 62
building projects 28–43
from BusinessObjects
C controlling size of 48–49
chart type copying 69
data 32–37
Density/Num 79 definition of 14–15
from external files 38–43
Differentiate 100%/Num 79 depth of 48
overview 31
Differentiate 100%/Symb 79 expanding selection of 65–66
BusinessMiner information in nodes 73
Differentiate Density/Num 79
data sources 29
Differentiate Frequency/ interpreting information in 72
interface 22
Symb 79 levels 72
printing 84–89 managing 67–71
projects 28–43 Differentiate Num/Num 79
Frequency/Symb 79 printing 88
toolbars 23–25
Num/Num 79 reading 72–74
windows 22 demonstration database
with BusinessObjects 17 charts
displaying 78–80 files 19
with BusinessObjects
Collapse Selection command 64, 67 records 20
modules 21
Collapse Tree One Level subject of 19
BusinessObjects
command 63 Designer 32
building projects from 32–37
Designer module 21
data providers 34
Designer module 32 D Developer Suite vi
Discover Rules command 75
local variables 35 data
quality of 15 discovering rules 75
microcubes 35
discriminating power 56
objects 34 segmenting 83
display options 53–61
optimizing universes 33 data mining 75–83
applications 13 fonts 60
preparing and obtaining labels 61
data 32 definition of 12
displaying
product line 21 history 12
charts 78–80
principal activities of 46
toolbars 25
technologies 13
documentation see BusinessObjects
usable data 15
documentation
data modeling 47–74
BusinessMiner’s User Guide 99

Index
E Model menu 62, 67 obtaining data 29, 30

Build Full Tree 62 building queries for data
Expand Selection command 63
Expand Selection One Level Collapse Selection 67 mining 34
Collapse selection 64 conditions 34
command 63
Collapse tree one level 63 dimensions, measures,
Expand Selection With Next
Expand Selection 63 details 34
command 64
Expand Selection One optimizing universes 33
Expand Selection With...
Level 63 redundant objects 34
command 63
Expand Tree One Level Expand Selection With user objects 34, 35
Next 64 with BusinessObjects 32
command 63
Expand Selection With... 63 OLAP server
external files 29
building projects from 38–43 Expand Tree One Level 63 defined 34
Fold 67 online help ix
defined 38
Group 67 ordered symbolic objects 39
ordered symbolic objects 39
parameters for text files 41 Modify Display Options 71
types supported 38
Rename Node 68 P
Rename Tree 67 parameters to set for text files 42
Ungroup 67
F Model toolbar 23–24
PDF guides viii
fixed-length text files performing What if?
modeling data 17, 47–74 analysis 81–83
specifying objects in 43
Modify Display Options personal data files, defined 34
Fold command 67
command 71 preparing data 29
free-hand SQL, defined 34
modifying building options 48–52 Print Preview command 85
modifying display options 53–61 Print Setup command 84
G printing
Group command 67 N BusinessMiner projects 84–89
node depth 56 decision tree 88
H node path 56 objects 88
help see BusinessObjects nodes, information in 73 Print Preview 85
documentation Print Setup 84
hiding toolbars 25 O results 88
object priority, specifying 52
L object to analyze 31
local variables 35 objects
dimensions, measures,
M details 34
microcubes 35 object to analyze 31
Mine menu ordered symbolic 39
Discover Rules 75 printing 88
Segment 83 reassigning unknown values
Visualize 78 to 50
What-if? 81 redundant 34
Mine toolbar 25 specifying input and selecting
mining data 18, 75–83 output 50
specifying priority 52
symbolic 39
100 BusinessMiner’s User Guide

Index
projects 28–43 S W
building from BusinessObjects
samples vi web page for documentation vi
data 32–37
Segment command 83 What if? analysis 81–83
building from external
segmenting data 83 What-if command 81
file 38–43
specifying object priority 52
contents 28 stored procedures, defined 34
creating ordered symbolic
Supervisor module 21
objects 39
symbolic objects
defined 28
defined 39
defining data source 29
defining goal 29
external files 38
T
text files
file specifications 28
parameters to set 42
how built 31
setting parameters 41
illustrated 37
microcubes 35 specifying objects in a fixed-
length text file 43
object to analyze 31
threshold 76
obtaining data 30
parameters to set for text tips vi
toolbars 23–25
files 42
displaying or hiding 25
preparing and obtaining data
Mine 25
for 29
Model 23–24
printing information about 86
tree browser
Project window 22
changing information in 70
setting parameters for text
definition of 70
files 41
navigating in 70
specifying objects in a fixed-
Tree Caption window 71
length text file 43
tree statistics 56
Q
queries
U
Unfold command 67
building for data mining 34
Ungroup command 67
conditions 34
universes
redundant objects 34
defined 32
user objects 34, 35
measure objects 33
Quick Tour vii
optimizing for data mining 33
predefined conditions 33
R summarized objects 33
reassigning unknown values to
user objects 34, 35
objects 50
unknown values, reassigning 50
records, copying 69
updates vi
Rename Node command 68
user objects 34, 35
Rename Tree command 67
results
printing 88
V
Visualize command 78
rules
visualizing data
discovering 75
relationships 78–80
examples of 77
Rules window 76
BusinessMiner’s User Guide 101

Index
102 BusinessMiner’s User Guide

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BusinessMiner User’s Guide

BusinessMiner User’s Guide

Copyright © Business Objects 2000

U.S. Patent No. 5,555,403

Part Number: 343-10-420-01

Finding the information you need v

Chapter 2 Building a BusinessMiner Project 27

Chapter 3 Modeling and Mining Data 45

BusinessMiner User’s Guide iii

iv BusinessMiner User’s Guide

❑ It’s in the Documentation vi

❑ About this Guide x

BusinessMiner User’s Guide v

It’s in the Documentation

A Documentation Service on the Web

vi BusinessMiner User’s Guide

A description and illustration

A menu bar and buttons for

An actual screen from Quick Tour

The BusinessMiner Tutorial

BusinessMiner User’s Guide vii

viii BusinessMiner User’s Guide

What to Do for More Information

BusinessMiner User’s Guide ix

About this Guide

Conventions Used in this Guide

Convention How Used

SMALL CAPITALS The names of all products such as DESIGNER,

x BusinessMiner User’s Guide

❑ An Overview of Data Mining 12

❑ BusinessObjects and BusinessMiner 17

❑ The BusinessMiner Interface 22

BusinessMiner User’s Guide 11

An Overview of Data Mining

What is Data Mining?

12 BusinessMiner User’s Guide

Data Mining Applications

Data Mining Technologies

Of the technologies above, BUSINESSMINER uses decision trees as the basic

BusinessMiner User’s Guide 13

Give dairy products = Cows

Wild Do not hibernate = Tigers

Do not chase cars = Cats

A decision tree about animals

14 BusinessMiner User’s Guide

What is Usable Data?

BusinessMiner User’s Guide 15

16 BusinessMiner User’s Guide

BusinessObjects and BusinessMiner

Modeling and Mining Data

Modeling the data

BusinessMiner User’s Guide 17

Mining the data

18 BusinessMiner User’s Guide

The Demonstration Database

About the demonstration database

BusinessMiner User’s Guide 19

The records in the demonstration database

20 BusinessMiner User’s Guide

BusinessMiner and Other BusinessObjects Products

BUSINESSOBJECTS • Query relational databases and data files

DESIGNER • Create universes