Configurable and Executable Task Structures Supporting Knowledge-intensive Processes

The operational support of knowledge-intensive processes (KiPs) constitutes a big challenge. As KiPs tend to be unpredictable and emergent, KiP execution is driven by knowledge workers utilizing their skills, experiences, and expertise. For coordination and synchronization, knowledge workers rely on simple task lists (e.g., to-do lists or checklists). Though these means are intuitive and prevalent, their current implementations are ineffective as well as error-prone: tasks are neither made explicit nor synchronized nor personalized. Furthermore, media disruptions frequently occur and no task lifecycle support is provided. Consequently, the effort knowledge workers invest in task management is not preserved for future KiPs. This work presents the proCollab approach, focusing on the generic concept of task trees. The latter enable to constitute digital task lists of any kind and to establish a task management lifecycle in the context of KiPs. Further, a configuration approach for reusable task lists (i.e., templates) is included to support knowledge workers in configuring task lists at both design and run time. proCollab is implemented as a proof-of-concept prototype and validated along a real-world use case from the healthcare domain. Overall, proCollab improves coordination and synchronization among knowledge workers, prevents media disruptions, and enables the reuse valuable coordination knowledge

Aggregate metric model for evaluating business processes

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to present a business process measurement framework for the evaluation of a corpus of business processes modelled in different business process modelling approaches. The results of the application of the proposed measurement framework will serve as a basis for choosing business process modelling approaches. Design/methodology/approach - The approach uses ideas of the Goal Question Metric (GQM) framework to define metrics for measuring a business process where the metrics answer the questions to achieve the goal. The Weighted Sum Method (WSM) is used to aggregate the measure of attributes of a business process to derive an aggregate measure, and business process modelling approaches are compared based on the evaluation of business process models created in different business process modelling approaches using the aggregate measure. Findings - The proposed measurement framework was applied to a corpus of business process models in different business process modelling approaches and is showed that insight is gained into the effect of business process modelling approach on the maintainability of a business process model. From the results, business process modelling approaches which imbibed the principle of separation of concerns of models, make use of reference or base model for a family of business process variants and promote the reuse of model elements performed highest when their models are evaluated with the proposed measurement framework. The results showed that the applications of the proposed framework proved to be useful for the selection of business process modelling approaches. Originality - The novelty of this work is in the application of WSM to integrate metric of business process models and the evaluation of a corpus of business process models created in different business process modelling approaches using the aggregate measure.This AAM is provided for your own personal use only. It may not be used for resale, reprinting, systematic distribution, emailing, or for any other commercial purpose without the permission of the publishe

Entwicklung eines UI-Konzepts für das Datenmanagement in einem kollaborativen Task Management System

Der Bedarf an Wissen für Prozesse steigt weltweit immer stärker an. Um diesem Bedarf gerecht zu werden, werden Systeme benötigt, die Wissensarbeitern effektives Aufgabenmanagement bieten. Dabei muss dieses System die Charakteristiken wissensbasierter Prozesse berücksichtigen und diese in allen Phasen ihres Lebenszyklus unterstützen. Das proCollab Projekt der Universität Ulm widmet sich diesen Herausforderungen und bietet ein Lebenszyklusbasiertes Aufgabenmanagement. Dazu stellt proCollab den Wissensarbeitern Aufgabenlisten zur Verfügung mit denen sie ihre Aufgaben planen und koordinieren können. Ein umfangreiches Datenmanagement soll es Wissensarbeitern ermöglichen, Daten für Prozesse und Aufgaben auszutauschen und zu verwalten. Dazu wird in dieser Arbeit ein User Interface-Konzept entwickelt, das die im Server implementierten Funktionen dem Benutzer zur Verfügung stellt. Dieses Konzept soll sich einheitlich und konsistent in den vorhanden proCollab Web-Client integrieren

Design and Implementation of a Dynamic Web-based User Interface for the proCollab System Supporting Knowledge-intensive Business Processes

Globalization and the change to post-industrial societies have led to an increased value of knowledge-intensive processes. Areas creating and utilizing new knowledge, such as research and development are of high importance for today’s companies. In these areas, knowledge workers drive the creation of value in knowledge-intensive processes. However, there is still no established process-based support due to the dynamic nature of these processes. The latter requires a high level of communication and cooperation between all involved workers. The proCollab research project, hosted at Ulm University, aims to holistically support knowledge workers and knowledge-intensive processes. The concept of proCollab relies on the lifecycle-based task management in the context of processes. In particular, knowledge workers may use digital task lists to synchronize and coordinate their work more effectively. To demonstrate the capabilities of proCollab, a sophisticated proof-of-concept prototype has been developed. This work presents the design and implementation of the dynamic, web-based user interface of the current version of the proCollab prototype