A Semantic-based framework for discovering business process patterns

Patterns currently play an important role in modern information systems (IS) development and their use has mainly been restricted to the design and implementation phases of the development lifecycle. Given the increasing significance of business modeling in IS development, patterns have the potential of providing a viable solution for promoting reusability of recurrent generalized models in the very early stages of development. This paper focuses on business process patterns and proposes an initial framework for the discovery and reuse of business process patterns within the IS development lifecycle. The framework synthesizes the idea from the domain engineering literature and proposes the use of semantics to drive both the discovery of patterns as well as their reuse

Enterprise modeling:process and REA value chain perspective

The paper focuses on enterprise business value chain modeling as an alternative to business process modeling. Well known REA methodology proposed by McCarthy and Geerts is used as the basic modeling framework. The research presented in the paper results in a generic semantic enterprise model using REA ontology. This rather static model is then converted into UML activity, sequence and state diagrams thus achieving dynamic view of the REA model. The dynamic REA view connects the process model and the value chain perspectives. It is shown that by using REA model transition called dynamization not only process models at task level can be achieved but also a consistency check of the REA model can be accomplished. By means of step by step value chain modeling of the enterprise a consistent process model can be reached preserving all advantages of the typical business process modeling methodsProcess model; Value chain model; REA; Production planning

Data, Information, and Knowledge in the Context of SILS

Data, information, and knowledge are becoming increasingly common terms in the literature of the software industry. This terminology originated some time ago in the disciplines of cognitive science and artificial intelligence to reference three closely related but distinct concepts. Traditionally, mainstream software engineering has lumped all three concepts together as data and has only recently begun to distinguish between them. Unfortunately, the popular desire to distinguish between data, information, and knowledge within the mainstream has blurred the individual meanings of the words to the point where there is no longer a clear-cut distinction between them for most people. This problem is compounded by the fact that the abstract nature of the associated concepts provides wide latitude for their application. The goal of this paper is to make these abstract concepts more concrete by providing examples of their usage taken directly from the design and implementation of the Shipboard Integration of Logistics Systems (SILS), an ONR project sponsored by Dr. Phillip Abraham. This paper does not claim or intend to provide definitive definitions of these terms; rather it seeks to provide a cognitive framework for thinking about these concepts from which observations and conclusions can be made about the differences and relationships between the individual concepts

An interdisciplinary study of information systems: Christopher Alexander and IS failure.

This paper describes work carried out at the University of York; its contents do not represent the views or opinions of BT. It provides an example of how insights into the field of IS can be gained by looking at it from the perspective of other academic disciplines. Based on the idea that physical and virtual office spaces exist to serve parallel organisational requirements, it is argued that designers of information systems (IS) should be able to learn from the experience of architects in order to improve their methods and redefine their objectives. Firstly, the work of Christopher Alexander is reviewed to show how his work on architectural patterns has been of value to the designers object-oriented systems. Secondly, similarities in the literature between notions of failure in architecture and IS design are identified. These are then examined through interviews with practitioners to establish the relevance of the approach. Finally, the area that Alexander described as ‘the quality without a name’ is highlighted as a topic for further research.Information Systems, Patterns, Virtual Office, Christopher Alexander

Detecting Coordination Problems in Collaborative Software Development Environments

Software development is rarely an individual effort and generally involves teams of developers collaborating to generate good reliable code. Among the software code there exist technical dependencies that arise from software components using services from other components. The different ways of assigning the design, development, and testing of these software modules to people can cause various coordination problems among them. We claim\ud that the collaboration of the developers, designers and testers must be related to and governed by the technical task structure. These collaboration practices are handled in what we call Socio-Technical Patterns.\ud The TESNA project (Technical Social Network Analysis) we report on in this paper addresses this issue. We propose a method and a tool that a project manager can use in order to detect the socio-technical coordination problems. We test the method and tool in a case study of a small and innovative software product company

An architecture for bridging OO and business process modeling.

Workflow systems and object-oriented (OO) technology have undoubtedly been some of the most important domains of interest of information technology over the past decade. Both domains however, have largely evolved independently, and not much research can be found in which OO principles and concepts have been applied to workflow systems or vice versa. In this paper we show how the two domains can be integrated. By integrating both domains, business process modelling can benefit from the advantages of the object-oriented approach. On the other hand, a more process oriented approach to object-oriented development would enhance the organisational fit in of object-oriented information systems development. The architecture that results from this integration is a tier-based one with a separate tier for workflow aspects.Architecture; Processes; Systems; Information technology; Systems development; Integration;

Extrakontext- und Applikationslogik in Anwendungssystemen zur Unterstützung virtueller Gemeinschaften

Die Analyse von Anwendungssystemen in kommerziellen nformationssystemen - vor allem im Bereich interaktiver Online-Systeme - erfordert häufig die Modellierung von Strukturen, die erst bei der Nutzung des fertigen Softwareproduktes, nicht aber in der Software selbst, zum Tragen kommen. Es existieren Gesichtspunkte, die mit Hilfe der meisten gängigen Modellierungsmethoden nicht oder nur unzureichend erfaßt werden können und hier unter der Bezeichnung „Extrakontext-Logik“ diskutiert werden. Am Beispiel der Modellierung eines Anwendungssystems zur Unterstützung virtueller Gemeinschaften (Virtual Community Engine) auf der Ebene von Kontextdiagrammen werden Ausprägungen der Extrakontext-Logik exemplarisch dargestellt. Ferner thematisiert der Beitrag untemehmensstrategisch-organisatorische Strukturen als Parameter der Extrakontext-Logik und bietet ein Erklärungsmodell an, das die Zusammenhänge zwischen Strategie und Analysemodellen von Anwendungssystemen mit Hilfe von Mustern verdeutlicht

Improving the reuse possibilities of the behavioral aspects of object-oriented domain models.

Reuse of domain models is often limited to the reuse of the structural aspects of the domain (e.g. by means of generic data models). In object-oriented models, reuse of dynamic aspects is achieved by reusing the methods of domain classes. Because in the object-oriented approach any behavior is attached to a class, it is impossible to reuse behavior without at the same time reusing the class. In addition, because of the message passing paradigm, object interaction must be specified as a method attached to one class which is invoked by another class. In this way object interaction is hidden in the behavioral aspects of classes. This makes object interaction schemas difficult to reuse and customize. The focus of this paper is on improving the reuse of object-oriented domain models. This is achieved by centering the behavioral aspects around the concept of business events.Model; Models;