Interactivity Closes the Gap - Lessons Learned in an Automotive Industry Application

After nearly two decades of data mining research there are many commercial mining tools available, and a wide range of algorithms can be found in literature. One might think there is a solution to most of the problems practitioners face. In our application of descriptive induction on warranty data, however, we found a considerable gap between many standard solutions and our practical needs. Confronted with challenging data and requirements such as understandability and support of existing work flows, we tried many things that did not work, ending up in simple solutions that do. We feel that the problems we faced are not so uncommon, and would like to advocate that it is better to focus on simplicity---allowing domain experts to bring in their knowledge---rather than on complex algorithms. Interactivity and simplicity turn out to be key features to success.