Developing and enforcing internal information systems standards: InduMaker’s Standards Management Process

It is widely agreed that standards provide numerous benefits when available and enforced. Company-internal Information Systems (IS) management procedures and solutions, in the following coined IS ‘standards’, allow for harmonizing operations between company units, locations and even different service providers. However, many companies lack an organized process for defining and managing internal IS standards, which causes uncertainties and delays in decision making, planning, and design processes. In this case study of the globally operating InduMaker (anonymized company name), an established manufacturing supplier, we look into the company-internal management of IS standards. Theoretically grounded in the organizational and IS-focused literature on business process modelling and business process commoditization, we describe and investigate InduMaker’s newly developed Standard Management Process (SMP) for defining and managing company-internal business and IS standards, with which the multinational pursues offering clear answers to business and IT departments about existing IS standards, their degree of obligation, applicability, and scope at any time

A Model-Driven Approach for Business Process Management

The Business Process Management is a common mechanism recommended by a high number of standards for the management of companies and organizations. In software companies this practice is every day more accepted and companies have to assume it, if they want to be competitive. However, the effective definition of these processes and mainly their maintenance and execution are not always easy tasks. This paper presents an approach based on the Model-Driven paradigm for Business Process Management in software companies. This solution offers a suitable mechanism that was implemented successfully in different companies with a tool case named NDTQ-Framework.Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia TIN2010-20057-C03-02Junta de Andalucía TIC-578

Translating standard process models to BPEL

Standardisation of languages in the field of business process management has long been an elusive goal. Recently though, consensus has built around one process implementation language, namely BPEL, and two fundamentally similar process modelling notations, namely UML Activity Diagram (UML AD) and BPMN. This paper presents a technique for generating BPEL code from process models expressed in a core subset of BPMN and UML AD. This model-to-code translation is a necessary ingredient to the emergence of model-driven business process development environments based on these standards. The proposed translation has been implemented as an open source tool

Mapping Industry Standards in Undergraduate Business Education

Industry standards have a significant impact on business as a means to eliminate waste, reduce costs, market products (e.g., for quality, safety, interoperability) and lessen liability (Thompson, 2011). Consequently, an understanding and the ability to use standards, agreed upon practices among interested or vested parties, is a critical workplace competency for those engaged in business and industry. To have a workforce competent in the use of standards, higher education curricula must be developed to integrate standards education at appropriate points within the curriculum. Despite the importance of standards, they are not universally integrated into the college and university curricula. Given the widespread use of standards in business and industry, a study was undertaken by four academic librarians to explore the use and potential integration of standards in undergraduate business management curricula. This was accomplished through curriculum mapping of two top-ranked undergraduate business management programs. Syllabi of the two undergraduate business management programs were examined for pre-established terms (e.g., ISO, standards, etc.), as well as potential opportunities for integration of standards in the future. Of the 62 courses examined only five (or 8%) specifically mentioned standards; however, half of the courses examined were found to have potential for the integration of standards across nine business curriculum areas: business and management strategy, business law, ethics and social responsibility, human resources, information systems, international/global, marketing, process/product development, and project management. This study found that few undergraduate business management courses specifically taught or used standards based on the syllabi, but considerable potential exists for the integration of standards into undergraduate business management courses

Mapping industry standards and integration opportunities in business management curricula

Industry standards have a significant impact on business as a means to eliminate waste, reduce costs, market products (e.g., for quality, safety, interoperability) and lessen liability (Thompson, 2011). Consequently, an understanding and the ability to use standards, agreed upon practices among interested or vested parties, is a critical workplace competency for those engaged in business and industry. To have a workforce competent in the use of standards, higher education curricula must be developed to integrate standards education at appropriate points within the curriculum. Despite the importance of standards, they are not universally integrated into the college and university curricula. Given the widespread use of standards in business and industry, a study was undertaken by four academic librarians (two business librarians and two engineering librarians) to explore the use and potential integration of standards in undergraduate business management curricula. This was accomplished through curriculum mapping of two top-ranked undergraduate business management programs. Syllabi of the two undergraduate business management programs were examined for pre-established terms (e.g., ISO, standards), as well as potential opportunities for integration of standards in the future. Of the 62 courses examined only five (or 8%) specifically mentioned standards; however, half of the courses examined were found to have potential for the integration of standards across nine business curriculum areas: business and management strategy, business law, ethics and social responsibility, human resources, information systems, international/global, marketing, process/product development, and project management. This study found that few undergraduate business management courses specifically taught or used standards based on the syllabi, but considerable potential exists for the integration of standards into undergraduate business management courses

Using process mapping software to redesign a management system

Management Systems are becoming de rigueur for Organisations, but many with existing Management Systems are finding that they are creaking at the seams. Changes to Standards, Regulations, Business Practices, Organisation structures and Products mean that Organisations have be flexible and their Management Systems also. With Management Systems based on those written in the 1990s, companies are realising that they need to make a step change in order to maintain their competitive advantage. This Management Summary will discuss why Process Mapping should be considered as a method for this improvement, what to consider when choosing a Process Mapping tool and how the change should be planned. It uses experience from several companies with which the author has been involved

Komunikace – významný prostředek nespokojenosti managementu

Purpose of the article: Effective communication in an organization is one of the preconditions of its operation. The aim of the article is to point out the communication process in the complaints management, to emphasize importance of the communication in the business practice and the current state analyze of the communication in Slovak business subjects. The paper presents the partial results and conclusions of research carried out. Methodology/methods: The methodology of this study is based on the scientific methods of acquiring and processing data – observation, questionnaire, interview, qualitative methods (analysis, synthesis, induction, deduction, comparison, abstraction, etc.); quantitative methods (descriptive statistics such as frequency analysis, statistical analysis, confidence intervals) and graphical methods. Scientific aim: The scientific aim of the article is to prove the established differences between business subjects that are the result of systematic influence (for example quality management system, subject of business, duration of action in the market). Findings: The research results have revealed the strengths of business subjects and revealed the areas which need to be improved. In the first place, they should become aware of the fact that the communication process necessarily forms the part of the complaints management and is well founded. The positive effect also has implementation of the existing ISO 9000 series of standards into business practice, which was reflected in a higher level of complaints management. Conclusions: Following the knowledge of communication process and its functioning plus awareness of communication obstacles, it is possible to improve the effectiveness and the result of communication and by that affect the overall result of claim procedure. Therefore, communication can be considered as very significant element in the process of complaints and claims handling

Auditing IT Governance

Effective IT governance helps ensure that IT supports business goals, optimizes business investment in IT, and appropriately manages IT-related risks and opportunities. Organizations that realize the IT is no longer a support process and embeds value and risks need a structured approach for better managing Information Technology, enable its capability to deliver added value enterprise wide and for setting up a risk management program to address new risks arising for usage of IT in business processes. In order to assess if IT Governance is in line with industry practices, IT Auditors need a good understanding of processes and applicable standards, particular audit work programs and experience in assessing potential problem indicators.IT Governance, Audit, ISACA, CGEIT, Val IT, Value Governance, Portfolio Management, Investment Management

A hybrid approach to workflow modelling

The increase in Business Process Management projects in the past decade has seen an increase in demand for business process modelling techniques. A rapidly growing aspect of BPM is the use of workflow management systems to automate routine and sequential processes. Workflows tend to move away from traditional definitions of business processes can often be forced to fit a model which does not suit its nature. Existing process modelling tools tend to be biased to either the informational, behavioural or object oriented aspect of the workflow. Because of this, models can often miss important aspects of a workflow. As well as managing the relationship between the types of model it is important to consider who will be using it as process models are useful in various ways. This paper reports on a case study in a manufacturing company where users were surveyed to see which are the notation that are most common in modelling based on two main categories (behavioural and informational). Research outcomes showed that there is no prevailing set of standards used for either of these categories, whilst most user feel the need to use more than one approach to model their system at any given time