Domain-independent exception handling services that increase robustness in open multi-agent systems

Title from cover. "May 2000."Includes bibliographical references (p. 17-23).Mark Klein and Chrysanthos Dellarocas

Why Rigid Process Management Technology Hampers Computerized Support of Healthcare Processes

Healthcare processes are characterized by frequent changes, numerous exceptions and complex deviations from the norm. Despite the increasing adoption of process-aware healthcare information systems (PAHIS), there still exist numerous issues related to the handling of exceptions in clinical processes that are not effectively supported in contemporary PAHIS. This paper presents preliminary results of a research whose goal is to get a deeper understanding of clinical work practices and to better understand how IT process support should look like for them. Altogether, adequate handling of failure and exceptions in PAHIS, while still enabling a certain level of control and assistance to clinical staff

An experimental evaluation of domain-independent fault handling services open multi-agent systems

Title from cover. "May 2000."Includes bibliographical references (p. 13-16).Supported in part by NSF. IIS-9803251 Supported in part by DARPA. F30602-98-2-0099Chrysanthos Dellarocas and Mark Klein

Survivor: An Approach for Adding Dependability to Legacy Workflow Systems

Although they often provide critical services, most workflow systems are not dependable. There has been much literature on dependable/survivable distributed systems; most is concerned with developing new architectures, not adapting pre-existing ones. Additionally, the literature is focused on hardening, security-based defense, as opposed to recovery. For deployed systems, it is often infeasible to completely replace existing infrastructures; what is more pragmatic are ways in which existing distributed systems can be adapted to offer better dependability. In this paper, we outline a general architecture that can easily be retrofitted to legacy workflow systems in order to improve dependability and fault tolerance. We do this by monitoring enactment and replicating partial workflow states as tools for detection, analysis and recovery. We discuss some policies that can guide these mechanisms. Finally, we describe and evaluate our implementation, Survivor, which modified an existing workflow system provided by the Naval Research Lab

From process logic to business logic - A cognitive approach to business process management

The unpredictability of business activities means that business process management should provide a way to adapt to change. The traditional workflow approach, based on predefined process logic, offers little support for today's complex and dynamic business environment. Therefore, a cognitive approach is proposed to help manage complex business activities, based on continuous awareness of situations and real-time decisions on activities. In this approach, the business environment is seen as capturing events that occurred and the state of tasks and resources; business logic involving process routing, operational constraints, exception handling and business strategy is used to determine which actions are appropriate for the current situation. By extending process management from process logic to business logic, the methodology offers flexibility, agility and adaptability in complex business process management. © 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.postprin

Distributed Work Display: A Representation for Analyzing Enacted Distributed Operational Work

Distributed work is becoming increasingly common, but existing approaches to supporting it focus almost entirely on routine, anticipated processes at the expense of understanding how human actors interact to resolve unanticipated obstacles and misunderstandings. This paper describes the Distributed Work Display, a representation of work as enacted that can support analysts and designers in creating the necessary support for effective distributed operational work. The tool emphasizes the information needed to understand the process of articulation (Corbin and Strauss 1993) or working things out. This representation makes explicit “who knows what, when, where, and how.” The use of DWD is illustrated with an example from logistics operations in the US Navy. DWD is compared to other display mechanisms used in practice: email listings, transcripts, and activity diagrams. Based on this comparison we identify the potential value of DWD for analysis of distributed work and design of systems to support that work

Supporting adaptiveness of cyber-physical processes through action-based formalisms

Cyber Physical Processes (CPPs) refer to a new generation of business processes enacted in many application environments (e.g., emergency management, smart manufacturing, etc.), in which the presence of Internet-of-Things devices and embedded ICT systems (e.g., smartphones, sensors, actuators) strongly influences the coordination of the real-world entities (e.g., humans, robots, etc.) inhabitating such environments. A Process Management System (PMS) employed for executing CPPs is required to automatically adapt its running processes to anomalous situations and exogenous events by minimising any human intervention. In this paper, we tackle this issue by introducing an approach and an adaptive Cognitive PMS, called SmartPM, which combines process execution monitoring, unanticipated exception detection and automated resolution strategies leveraging on three well-established action-based formalisms developed for reasoning about actions in Artificial Intelligence (AI), including the situation calculus, IndiGolog and automated planning. Interestingly, the use of SmartPM does not require any expertise of the internal working of the AI tools involved in the system

Strategic improvisation, entrepreneurial self-efficacy and performance: The role of corporate entrepreneurship and organisational culture

Global competition, dynamic environment and shrinking resources have created a lot of pressure on today’s organizations including Higher Education Institutions (HEIs). Hence, the need for effective human resource that is capable of not only ensuring efficient utilization of resources but also responding to rapid dynamism of today’s environment to enhance HEIs performance and relevance. Previous studies mainly concentrate on top management aspect of ensuring HEIs turn around, neglecting middle and lower level managers. Drawing from the Resource Base Theory (RBT) and Social Cognitive Theory (SCT), the study examines the indirect role of corporate entrepreneurship (CE) and organizational culture (OC) on the relationships between leaders’ strategic improvisation (SI), entrepreneurial self-efficacy (ESE) and performance. Data were generated from 229 academic leaders from ten HEIs in Kano, which were analyzed using PLS-SEM version 3.0. The findings of the direct relationship between SI, CE and performance were supported, while that of ESE reported an insignificant relationship, hence, rejected. Similarly, the result also indicates that CE depends on SI and ESE behaviour of academic leaders in HEIs. As postulated the mediating role of CE on SI, ESE and performance relationship was also established in the study. However, the moderating role of OC on the relationship between SI and performance and ESE and performance was not significantly established. The leaders’ SI, ESE, CE which were mainly used in private settings to explain performance is a novel contribution to knowledge and HEIs management. The finding is a wakeup call for HEIs management to identify and appreciate these factors in the study in order for them to play the needed role for national development. Future studies should include more samples as well as using organization as unit of analysis. The debate about the hierarchical level at which the strategic and entrepreneurial behaviour of managers is most beneficial is also another avenue for future studies