Gamification Analytics: Support for Monitoring and Adapting Gamification Designs

Inspired by the engaging effects in video games, gamification aims at motivating people to show desired behaviors in a variety of contexts. During the last years, gamification influenced the design of many software applications in the consumer as well as enterprise domain. In some cases, even whole businesses, such as Foursquare, owe their success to well-designed gamification mechanisms in their product. Gamification also attracted the interest of academics from fields, such as human-computer interaction, marketing, psychology, and software engineering. Scientific contributions comprise psychological theories and models to better understand the mechanisms behind successful gamification, case studies that measure the psychological and behavioral outcomes of gamification, methodologies for gamification projects, and technical concepts for platforms that support implementing gamification in an efficient manner. Given a new project, gamification experts can leverage the existing body of knowledge to reuse previous, or derive new gamification ideas. However, there is no one size fits all approach for creating engaging gamification designs. Gamification success always depends on a wide variety of factors defined by the characteristics of the audience, the gamified application, and the chosen gamification design. In contrast to researchers, gamification experts in the industry rarely have the necessary skills and resources to assess the success of their gamification design systematically. Therefore, it is essential to provide them with suitable support mechanisms, which help to assess and improve gamification designs continuously. Providing suitable and efficient gamification analytics support is the ultimate goal of this thesis. This work presents a study with gamification experts that identifies relevant requirements in the context of gamification analytics. Given the identified requirements and earlier work in the analytics domain, this thesis then derives a set of gamification analytics-related activities and uses them to extend an existing process model for gamification projects. The resulting model can be used by experts to plan and execute their gamification projects with analytics in mind. Next, this work identifies existing tools and assesses them with regards to their applicability in gamification projects. The results can help experts to make objective technology decisions. However, they also show that most tools have significant gaps towards the identified user requirements. Consequently, a technical concept for a suitable realization of gamification analytics is derived. It describes a loosely coupled analytics service that helps gamification experts to seamlessly collect and analyze gamification-related data while minimizing dependencies to IT experts. The concept is evaluated successfully via the implementation of a prototype and application in two real-world gamification projects. The results show that the presented gamification analytics concept is technically feasible, applicable to actual projects, and also valuable for the systematic monitoring of gamification success

A two-fold Perspective on Enterprise Security in the Digital Twin Context

Digital twins represent and can manage an enterprise asset virtually along its lifecycle. The vital technologies the twin relies upon (e.g., Internet of Things) have only recently matured. Since then, literature has taken up on digital twins. The digital twin therefore constitutes a very young concept, where security is currently neglected. This dissertation aims at closing this research gap, and further contributes to the body of knowledge concerning digital twin security. To study digital twin security, a two-fold approach is necessary. On the one hand, digital twins are at risk for being attacked (security for digital twins). However, on the other hand, they can also be leveraged to gain novel security opportunities (digital twins for security). This dissertation lays the general foundations of the digital twin concept in enterprises and studies these two security perspectives hereinafter. It shows that the digital twin’s security can be fostered utilizing the blockchain technology. Furthermore, it proposes digital twins to be of use in corporate security: It is shown that digital twins can collaborate with traditional security tools like Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) systems and organizational structures like the Security Operations Center (SOC). In this regard, the use of digital twins is further proven to be beneficial for digital forensics as well as Cyber Threat Intelligence (CTI)

The proposed alignment framework in enterprise architecture development for the Omani public sector

The misalignment between Enterprise Architecture (EA) development and stakeholders’ goals plays a vital role in the low acceptance of EA in organizations and governments. Literature has highlighted the need for an alignment framework to support enterprise architects to align the development process of EA with the stakeholders’ goals. Hence, this research developed an alignment framework to align the EA development process with the stakeholders to produce an agreed architecture that supports the architects. Multiple Perspectives Theory (MPT) was used to develop a preliminary research model that provided the initial guidance in data collection and analysis. The research employed a qualitative case study approach to build an in-depth understanding of EA development process, enterprise architects and stakeholders’ roles, as well as the factors influencing the alignment between them. The Government Architecture Framework (GAF) of the Omani public sector was used as the case study that included GAF documentation review, and interviews with architects and stakeholders who participated in the development of GAF. The findings showed that twelve alignment factors influenced the development of GAF which are standardization, development scope, principles, governance, top management support, culture, commitment, awareness, communication, value of EA, change management capability and experience. These factors were used as the base to develop the alignment framework followed by a focus group session with GAF architects was organized to validate the final framework. As a conclusion, the study has shown that the alignment framework provides a comprehensive understanding for practitioners and academicians about the factors and their influences at each EA development step

Sharing Economy Business Models : Addressing the design-implementation gap

Despite sharing being a long-practiced form of consumption, the concept ‘sharing economy’ has emerged only recently. New business models have proliferated, utilising technology to reduce transaction costs and facilitate shared access. Societal actors have taken interest in the sharing economy, to reduce resource consumption, foster social cohesion, and support the economy. However, sharing economy business models facilitate a wide array of consumption practices, including sharing, renting, borrowing, lending, bartering, swapping, trading, exchanging, gifting, buying second-hand, and even buying new goods. Past academic research and media attention tend to focus on unicorns such as Airbnb and Uber. There is greater need to explore the diverse permutations of business models within the sharing economy, especially considering sustainability.However, a gap exists between the design and successful implementation of sharing economy business models. This research aims to advance and structure knowledge about the sharing economy and sustainable business models, by using business modelling methods to study the design and implementation of sharing economy business models. Inspired by design science, this research engages in prescriptive theory-building and design- oriented research to construct and evaluate design artefacts. Incorporating data materials from people, documents, and literature, the research strategies of grounded theory and desk research are utilised to support methods for data collection and data analysis.The research proposes a prescriptive definition of the sharing economy as a socio-economic system that leverages technology to mediate two-sided markets, which facilitate temporary access to goods that are under- utilised, tangible, and rivalrous. From this, four design principles guide the formation of the sharing economy business model framework, which capture three value dimensions, sixteen business model attributes, and eighty- nine configuration options. This research proposes a coherent design theory to support the conceptualisation of sharing economy business models for sustainability.Additional artefacts are developed to support the successful implementation of these business models. First, business model patterns provide the justificatory knowledge to select relevant business model attributes in specific contexts. Then, a systematic framework measures the social impact of sharing platforms across four aspects – trust, empowerment, social justice, and inclusivity. Finally, organisational response strategies to COVID-19 are established in the sharing economy.The primary contribution of this research is conceptual, with additional modest methodological and empirical contributions. Furthermore, the artefacts are intended to be useful for research and practice, including scholars, entrepreneurs, managers, policymakers, investors, users, and concerned citizens

Secure Information Sharing with Distributed Ledgers

In 2009, blockchain technology was first introduced as the supporting database technology for digital currencies. Since then, more advanced derivations of the technology have been developed under the broader term Distributed Ledgers, with improved scalability and support for general-purpose application logic. As a distributed database, they are able to support interorganizational information sharing while assuring desirable information security attributes like non-repudiation, auditability and transparency. Based on these characteristics, researchers and practitioners alike have begun to identify a plethora of disruptive use cases for Distributed Ledgers in existing application domains. While these use cases are promising significant efficiency improvements and cost reductions, practical adoption has been slow in the past years. This dissertation focuses on improving three aspects contributing to slow adoption. First, it attempts to identify application areas and substantiated use cases where Distributed Ledgers can considerably advance the security of information sharing. Second, it considers the security aspects of the technology itself, identifying threats to practical applications and detection approaches for these threats. And third, it investigates success factors for successful interorganizational collaborations using Distributed Ledgers

Big data reference architecture for industry 4.0: including economic and ethical Implications

El rápido progreso de la Industria 4.0 se consigue gracias a las innovaciones en varios campos, por ejemplo, la fabricación, el big data y la inteligencia artificial. La tesis explica la necesidad de una arquitectura del Big Data para implementar la Inteligencia Artificial en la Industria 4.0 y presenta una arquitectura cognitiva para la inteligencia artificial - CAAI - como posible solución, que se adapta especialmente a los retos de las pequeñas y medianas empresas. La tesis examina las implicaciones económicas y éticas de esas tecnologías y destaca tanto los beneficios como los retos para los países, las empresas y los trabajadores individuales. El "Cuestionario de la Industria 4.0 para las PYME" se realizó para averiguar los requisitos y necesidades de las pequeñas y medianas empresas. Así, la nueva arquitectura de la CAAI presenta un modelo de diseño de software y proporciona un conjunto de bloques de construcción de código abierto para apoyar a las empresas durante la implementación. Diferentes casos de uso demuestran la aplicabilidad de la arquitectura y la siguiente evaluación verifica la funcionalidad de la misma.The rapid progress in Industry 4.0 is achieved through innovations in several fields, e.g., manufacturing, big data, and artificial intelligence. The thesis motivates the need for a Big Data architecture to apply artificial intelligence in Industry 4.0 and presents a cognitive architecture for artificial intelligence – CAAI – as a possible solution, which is especially suited for the challenges of small and medium-sized enterprises. The work examines the economic and ethical implications of those technologies and highlights the benefits but also the challenges for countries, companies and individual workers. The "Industry 4.0 Questionnaire for SMEs" was conducted to gain insights into smaller and medium-sized companies’ requirements and needs. Thus, the new CAAI architecture presents a software design blueprint and provides a set of open-source building blocks to support companies during implementation. Different use cases demonstrate the applicability of the architecture and the following evaluation verifies the functionality of the architecture

Contextual Process Digitalization

This open access book presents an overview and step-by-step explanation of process management. It starts with the individual participants’ perspectives on their work in a process and its structuring and harmonization, and then moves on to its specification in a model and how it is embedded in the organizational and IT environment of the company. Lastly, the book examines the joint processing of instances in the resulting socio-technical systems. A corresponding illustration, which expands with the overview, enables readers to gain a comprehensive understanding of business process management. The book presents various facets of business process management from the perspective of the participants, and introduces a selection of models that have proved useful in practice. The design of such models supports the transition from a more-or-less unstructured or unsatisfactory way of working to a structured process that corresponds to the ideas of the company and its customers. The book is intended for professionals in industry as well as students in the field of business information systems who are looking for guidelines on how to discover, create and implement real-world processes

Semantic discovery and reuse of 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 modelling 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. As a statement of research-in-progress this paper focuses on business process patterns and proposes an initial methodological framework for the discovery and reuse of business process patterns within the IS development lifecycle. The framework borrows ideas from the domain engineering literature and proposes the use of semantics to drive both the discovery of patterns as well as their reuse

Elastic Business Process Management: State of the Art and Open Challenges for BPM in the Cloud

With the advent of cloud computing, organizations are nowadays able to react rapidly to changing demands for computational resources. Not only individual applications can be hosted on virtual cloud infrastructures, but also complete business processes. This allows the realization of so-called elastic processes, i.e., processes which are carried out using elastic cloud resources. Despite the manifold benefits of elastic processes, there is still a lack of solutions supporting them. In this paper, we identify the state of the art of elastic Business Process Management with a focus on infrastructural challenges. We conceptualize an architecture for an elastic Business Process Management System and discuss existing work on scheduling, resource allocation, monitoring, decentralized coordination, and state management for elastic processes. Furthermore, we present two representative elastic Business Process Management Systems which are intended to counter these challenges. Based on our findings, we identify open issues and outline possible research directions for the realization of elastic processes and elastic Business Process Management.Comment: Please cite as: S. Schulte, C. Janiesch, S. Venugopal, I. Weber, and P. Hoenisch (2015). Elastic Business Process Management: State of the Art and Open Challenges for BPM in the Cloud. Future Generation Computer Systems, Volume NN, Number N, NN-NN., http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.future.2014.09.00