The politics of health sector reform in Eastern Europe: the actor-centered institutionalist framework for analysis

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Modelling electronic service systems using UML

This paper presents a profile for modelling systems of electronic services using UML. Electronic services encapsulate business services, an organisational unit focused on delivering benefit to a consumer, to enhance communication, coordination and information management. Our profile is based on a formal, workflow-oriented description of electronic services that is abstracted from particular implementation technologies. Resulting models provide the basis for a formal analysis to verify behavioural properties of services. The models can also relate services to management components, including workflow managers and Electronic Service Management Systems (ESMSs), a novel concept drawn from experience of HP Service Composer and DySCo (Dynamic Service Composer), providing the starting point for integration and implementation tasks. Their UML basis and platform-independent nature is consistent with a Model-Driven Architecture (MDA) development strategy, appropriate to the challenge of developing electronic service systems using heterogeneous technology, and incorporating legacy systems

Business roles and negotiation models for Web service based provision

The emergence of XML as the lingua franca for communication among applications over the Web, the recent advances in service oriented computing and in web service architectures and the applicability of these technologies in the area of eCommerce necessitates the conceptualisation of business roles and negotiation models for web service based provision. According to the web service paradigm it is envisaged that services will be provided to customers based on dynamic web service composition. This places additional requirements to SLA negotiation in comparison to the traditional service provision paradigm where negotiation for service was performed with a single service provider system. This paper addresses the research challenges with regard to SLA negotiation for web service based provision and outlines business roles and a negotiation model for establishing SLAs with multiple web service providers in order to offer combined web service functionality to match user needs

Value Framing: A Prelude to Software Problem Framing

Software problem framing is a way to find specifications for software. Software problem frames can be used to structure the environment of a software system (the machine) and specify desired software properties in such a way that we can show that software with these properties will help achieve the required effects in the environment. Actually framing a software problem, i.e. finding suitable problem frames of a given situation, is creative activity for which no guidelines are currently known. In this paper, we propose to use an idea exploration technique called e3-value to find software problem frames. The e3-value methodology is an approach to help business analysists solve the problem of designing a networked enterprise, defined as a set of businesses or business units that make money by performing value exchanges over a computer network. The outcome of e3-value is viewed by business managers as a solution, but it is a problem for software engineers who have to implement this idea. In this paper we illustrate the combination of e3-value with problem framing by means of a small example from real life, and discuss the research questions that come out of this

Integration of BPM systems

New technologies have emerged to support the global economy where for instance suppliers, manufactures and retailers are working together in order to minimise the cost and maximise efficiency. One of the technologies that has become a buzz word for many businesses is business process management or BPM. A business process comprises activities and tasks, the resources required to perform each task, and the business rules linking these activities and tasks. The tasks may be performed by human and/or machine actors. Workflow provides a way of describing the order of execution and the dependent relationships between the constituting activities of short or long running processes. Workflow allows businesses to capture not only the information but also the processes that transform the information - the process asset (Koulopoulos, T. M., 1995). Applications which involve automated, human-centric and collaborative processes across organisations are inherently different from one organisation to another. Even within the same organisation but over time, applications are adapted as ongoing change to the business processes is seen as the norm in today’s dynamic business environment. The major difference lies in the specifics of business processes which are changing rapidly in order to match the way in which businesses operate. In this chapter we introduce and discuss Business Process Management (BPM) with a focus on the integration of heterogeneous BPM systems across multiple organisations. We identify the problems and the main challenges not only with regards to technologies but also in the social and cultural context. We also discuss the issues that have arisen in our bid to find the solutions

Actor perception in business use case modeling

Mainstream literature recognizes the validity and effectiveness of use cases as a technique for gathering and capturing system requirements. Use cases represent the driver of various modern development methods, mainly of object-oriented extraction, such as the Unified Process. Although the adoption of use cases proliferated in the context of software systems development, they are not as extensively employed in business modeling . The concept of business use case is not a novelty, but only recently did it begin to re-circulate in the literature and in case tools. This paper examines the issues involved in adopting business use cases for capturing the functionality of an organization and proposes guidelines for their identification, packaging, and mapping to system use cases. The proposed guidelines are based on the principle of actor perception described in the paper. The application of this principle is exemplified with a worked example aimed at demonstrating the utility of the proposed guidelines and at clarifying the application of the principle of actor perception. The worked example is based on a series of workshops run at a major UK financial institution

A BIM-based PSS approach for the management of maintenance operations of building equipment

The service-centered economy has grown considerably in the last few years, shifting from product-based solutions towards service centered offerings, i.e., Product-Service System (PSS) solutions. Such an approach is also emerging in the context of building equipment, where maintenance activities play a fundamental role in facility management. In this field, Building Information Modeling (BIM) based tools are diffusely used to improve the performances of facility management. However, few studies have addressed the above issues while considering a shift from product-based approaches in favor of more advanced servitization models. The study aims at integrating BIM based approaches in a PSS context for the improvement of the management of maintenance operations of building equipment. A general framework for maintenance management has been developed, merging the implementation of the PSS components in a BIM model for the definition of maintenance management. A first application of this methodology to a real case study concerning the elevators of an existing building has shown the efficacy of the proposed approach. The study highlighted the benefits that can be achieved, especially in terms of reduced periods of equipment unavailability, reduced costs and augmented customer satisfaction, while enhancing the information exchange between the PSS actors. Hence, although further research is still needed for its validation, the proposed approach can offer practical insights for the development of promising BIM-based PSS solutions for facility management in the construction industry