An approach to resource modelling in support of the life cycle engineering of enterprise systems

Enterprise modelling can facilitate the design, analysis, control and construction of contemporary enterprises which can compete in world-wide Product markets. This research involves a systematic study of enterprise modelling with a particular focus on resource modelling in support of the life cycle engineering of enterprise systems. This led to the specification and design of a framework for resource modelling. This framework was conceived to: classify resource types; identify the different functions that resource modelling can support, with respect to different life phases of enterprise systems; clarify the relationship between resource models and other modelling perspectives provide mechanisms which link resource models and other types of models; identify guidelines for the capture of information - on resources, leading to the establishment of a set of resource reference models. The author also designed and implemented a resource modelling tool which conforms to the principles laid down by the framework. This tool realises important aspects of the resource modeffing concepts so defined. Furthermore, two case studies have been carried out. One models a metal cutting environment, and the other is based on an electronics industry problem area. In this way, the feasibility of concepts embodied in the framework and the design of the resource modelling tool has been tested and evaluated. Following a literature survey and preliminary investigation, the CIMOSA enterprise modelling and integration methodology was adopted and extended within this research. Here the resource modelling tool was built by extending SEWOSA (System Engineering Workbench for Open System Architecture) and utilising the CIMBIOSYS (CINI-Building Integrated Open SYStems) integrating infrastructure. The main contributions of the research are that: a framework for resource modelling has been established; means and mechanisms have been proposed, implemented and tested which link and coordinate different modelling perspectives into an unified enterprise model; the mechanisms and resource models generated by this research support each Pfe phase of systems engineering projects and demonstrate benefits by increasing the degree to which the derivation process among models is automated

The Need of Knowledge Management Strategy for the Successfully Implementation of Reengineering Projects

This paper want to shown that current knowledge management approaches do not emphasise enough on knowledge sharing from reengineering project perspective. To achieve success with reengineering project, an organisation must possess and share knowledge about many different facets of this process. While many reengineering projects have resulted in improve performance, we believe that higher levels of performance improvement are possible by coupling IT capabilities with KM strategy. To explain these results it was assumed that the key to implementing with success reengineering project is having a wide knowledge management strategy. Our objective for the paper reported here was to understand the factors that motivate to share knowledge before implementing any knowledge management strategy to sustain the successfully implementation of reengineering projects.Information Technologies, knowledge, knowledge management, strategy, reengineering, project

Improving enterprise business processes with systems analysis and design methodologies and tools.

Enterprises have to be organized in a business process oriented way. This is in order to be successful in a changing and challenging business environment including uncertainty and complexity in managing business and manufacturing processes. The main objective of this thesis is to implement comprehensive modelling methodologies and tools that capture all useful information included within the enterprise business processes. This has been achieved first through implementing the Systems Analysis and Design (SAD) methodologies and tools for integrating the business design processes. The implementation should recognize the enterprise organization view, data and information view, function view, and also product/service view. Such recognition is required in order to improve the reuse of business process models for the implementation of workflow management applications. The implemented design methodologies have been demonstrated through two case studies, including the modelling of business and automotive manufacturing processes. In Addition, the Architecture of the Integrated Information System (ARIS) has been presented in both implementations using ARIS tool set. The ARIS implementation has assisted in supporting analysis for potential changes, specifying requirements, and also supporting the modeled business processes systems level design and integration activities. Results of using the selected graphical design languages with the systematic explanations of modelling the business process functions and activities revealed the need for implementing comprehensive SAD methodologies. Also, the SAD methodologies have assisted with integrating the enterprise through modelling its business activities, technology, and human elements involved. The benefits and disadvantages of each modelling methodology and tool is studied and discussed in detail in this thesis.Dept. of Industrial and Manufacturing Systems Engineering. Paper copy at Leddy Library: Theses & Major Papers - Basement, West Bldg. / Call Number: Thesis2005 .K39. Source: Masters Abstracts International, Volume: 44-03, page: 1475. Thesis (M.A.Sc.)--University of Windsor (Canada), 2005

Enabling Flexibility in Process-Aware Information Systems: Challenges, Methods, Technologies

In today’s dynamic business world, the success of a company increasingly depends on its ability to react to changes in its environment in a quick and flexible way. Companies have therefore identified process agility as a competitive advantage to address business trends like increasing product and service variability or faster time to market, and to ensure business IT alignment. Along this trend, a new generation of information systems has emerged—so-called process-aware information systems (PAIS), like workflow management systems, case handling tools, and service orchestration engines. With this book, Reichert and Weber address these flexibility needs and provide an overview of PAIS with a strong focus on methods and technologies fostering flexibility for all phases of the process lifecycle (i.e., modeling, configuration, execution and evolution). Their presentation is divided into six parts. Part I starts with an introduction of fundamental PAIS concepts and establishes the context of process flexibility in the light of practical scenarios. Part II focuses on flexibility support for pre-specified processes, the currently predominant paradigm in the field of business process management (BPM). Part III details flexibility support for loosely specified processes, which only partially specify the process model at build-time, while decisions regarding the exact specification of certain model parts are deferred to the run-time. Part IV deals with user- and data-driven processes, which aim at a tight integration of processes and data, and hence enable an increased flexibility compared to traditional PAIS. Part V introduces existing technologies and systems for the realization of a flexible PAIS. Finally, Part VI summarizes the main ideas of this book and gives an outlook on advanced flexibility issues. The attached pdf file gives a preview on Chapter 3 of the book which explains the book's overall structure

Automatically generating computer simulation models from business process models.

In a modern business environment it is common place for organisations to use both Business Process Modelling and Simulation tools for a variety of business operations. Although these tools are used for different purposes, they are often used on the same projects, but at a different point in its lifecycle. Business Process Modelling is a static modelling tool, which is process orientated and models current business processes. Whilst Simulation is a dynamic modelling tool, which is system orientated, testing current and future operations. Although the modelling tools are different the process definition within both methods contain the same data. Currently that data is not reused and simulation modellers will often reproduce that information from scratch. Therefore a successful integration of the modelling methods would extend the capacity of Business Process Modelling tools and make Simulation more acceptable among reengineering practitioners. A literature review was carried out to identify the capacity of different modelling methodologies, identifying the variances between the modelling procedures and substantiate the need for an integrated solution. Based on the structured research programme, experimentation was undertaken evaluating the proposed method of integration. The results of the research were then documented, evaluating its advantages, disadvantages, limitations and the requirements for any future research. The research identified the potential of an integrated system and the problems that restrict a solution. From the experimentation it became apparent that integration of two software packages is a feasible option, and could potentially enhance both their capabilities

Semantic Business Process Modeling

This book presents a process-oriented business modeling framework based on semantic technologies. The framework consists of modeling languages, methods, and tools that allow for semantic modeling of business motivation, business policies and rules, and business processes. Quality of the proposed modeling framework is evaluated based on the modeling content of SAP Solution Composer and several real-world business scenarios

Workflow Management versus Case Handling: Results from a Controlled Software Experiment

Business Process Management (BPM) technology has become an important instrument for improving process performance. When considering its use, however, enterprises typically have to rely on vendor promises or qualitative reports. What is still missing and what is also demanded by IT decision makers are quantitative evaluations based on empirical and experimental research. This paper picks up this demand and illustrates how experimental research can be applied in the BPM field. The conducted experiment compares efforts for implementing a sample business process either based on standard workflow technology or on a case handling system. We motivate and describe the experiment design, discuss threats for the validity of experiment results (as well as risk mitigations), and present experiment results. In general, more experimental research is needed in order to obtain more valid data on the various aspects and effects of BPM technology and tools

The Need of Knowledge Management Strategy for the Successfully Implementation of Reengineering Projects

This paper want to shown that current knowledge management approaches do not emphasise enough on knowledge sharing from reengineering project perspective. To achieve success with reengineering project, an organisation must possess and share knowledge about many different facets of this process. While many reengineering projects have resulted in improve performance, we believe that higher levels of performance improvement are possible by coupling IT capabilities with KM strategy. To explain these results it was assumed that the key to implementing with success reengineering project is having a wide knowledge management strategy. Our objective for the paper reported here was to understand the factors that motivate to share knowledge before implementing any knowledge management strategy to sustain the successfully implementation of reengineering projects

Modeling Business Process Variability

This master thesis presents research findings on business process variability modeling. Its main goal is to analyze inherent problems of business process variability and solve them simply, innovatively and effectively. To achieve this goal, process variability is defined by analyzing scientific literature, its main problems identified and is illustrated using a healthcare running example: process variability is classified into process variability within the domain space and over time. These two forms of process variability respectively lead to process variability modeling and process model evolution problems. After defining the main problems inherent to process variability, the focus of this research project is defined: solving process variability modeling problems. First current business process modeling languages are evaluated to assess the effectiveness of their respective modeling concepts when modeling process variability, using a newly created set of evaluation criteria and the healthcare running example. The following business process modeling languages are evaluated: Event driven process chains (EPC), the Business Process Modeling Notation (BPMN) and Configurable EPC (C-EPC). Business process variability modeling and Software product line engineering have similar problems. Therefore the variability modeling concepts developed by software product line engineering are analyzed. Feature diagrams and software configuration management are the main variability management concepts provided by software product line engineering. To apply these variability management concepts to model process variability meant combining them with existing business modeling languages. Riebisch feature diagrams are combined with C-EPC to form Feature-EPC. Applying software configuration management, meant merging Change Oriented Versioning with basic EPC to create COV-EPC, and merging the Proteus Configuration Language with basic EPC to design PCL-EPC. Finally these newly created business process modeling languages are also evaluated using the newly designed evaluation criteria and the healthcare running example. EPC or BPMN are not suited to model business process variability within the domain space. C-EPC provide explicit means to model business process variability, however the process models tend to get big very fast. Furthermore the syntax, the contextual constraints and the semantics of the configuration requirements and guidelines used to configure the C-EPC process models are unclear. Feature-EPC improve C-EPC with domain modeling capability and clearly defined configuration rules: their syntax, contextual constraints and semantics have been clearly defined using a context free grammar in Backus-Naur form. Furthermore, consistent combinations of features and configuration rules are ensured using respectively constraints and a conflict resolution algorithm. However, Feature-EPC and C-EPC suffer from the same weakness: large configurable process models. In COV-EPC and PCL-EPC the problem of large configurable process models is solved. COV-EPC ensures consistent combinations of options and configuration rules using respectively validities and a conflict resolution algorithm. PCL-EPC guarantees consistent combinations of process fragments by means of a PCL specification