A practical study of methods for deriving insightful attribute importance rankings using decision bireducts

Subject matter experts (SMEs) often rely on attribute importance rankings to verify machine learning models, acquire insights into their outcomes, and gain a deeper understanding of the investigated phenomena. To further increase their usefulness, we introduce a new approach to the evaluation of attribute rankings produced by any machine learning method. As a real-world case study, we investigate the attribute importance scores produced using XGBoost and decision bireducts on the data gathered by an HR company, where the goal is to predict the willingness of candidates to change their job. For this task, XGBoost delivers accurate models but fails to identify many attributes that are important to SMEs. In comparison, decision bireducts lead to models that are easier to interpret and explore the data with a higher focus on the diversity of attributes. The ensembles of decision bireducts deliver comparable accuracy and their associated attribute rankings are more insightful than those of XGBoost.