Unleashing the Effectiveness of Process-oriented Information Systems: Problem Analysis, Critical Success Factors, Implications

Process-oriented information systems (IS) aim at the computerized support of business processes. So far, contemporary IS have often fail to meet this goal. To better understand this drawback, to systematically identify its rationales, and to derive critical success factors for business process support, we conducted three empirical studies: an exploratory case study in the automotive domain, an online survey among 79 IT professionals, and another online survey among 70 business process management (BPM) experts. This paper summarizes the findings of these studies, puts them in relation with each other, and uses them to show that "process-orientation" is scarce and "process-awareness" is needed in IS engineering

Modeling and Simulating Causal Dependencies on Process-aware Information Systems from a Cost Perspective

Providing effective IT support for business processes has become crucial for enterprises to stay competitive in their market. Business processes must be defined, implemented, enacted, monitored, and continuously adapted to changing situations. Process life cycle support and continuous process improvement become critical success factors in contemporary and future enterprise computing. In this context, process-aware information systems (PAISs) adopt a key role. Thereby, organization-specific and generic process support systems are distinguished. In the former case, the PAIS is build "from scratch" and incorporates organization-specific information about the structure and processes to be supported. In the latter case, the PAIS does not contain any information about the structure and processes of a particular organization. Instead, an organization needs to configure the PAIS by specifying processes, organizational entities, and business objects. To enable the realization of PAISs, numerous process support paradigms, process modeling standards, and business process management tools have been introduced. The application of these approaches in PAIS engineering projects is not only influenced by technological, but also by organizational and project-specific factors. Between these factors there exist numerous causal dependencies, which, in turn, often lead to complex and unexpected effects in PAIS engineering projects. In particular, the costs of PAIS engineering projects are significantly influenced by these causal dependencies. What is therefore needed is a comprehensive approach enabling PAIS engineers to systematically investigate these causal dependencies as well as their impact on the costs of PAIS engineering projects. Existing economic-driven IT evaluation and software cost estimation approaches, however, are unable to take into account causal dependencies and resulting effects. In response, this thesis introduces the EcoPOST framework. This framework utilizes evaluation models to describe the interplay of technological, organizational, and project-specific evaluation factors, and simulation concepts to unfold the dynamic behavior of PAIS engineering projects. In this context, the EcoPOST framework also supports the reuse of evaluation models based on a library of generic, predefined evaluation patterns and also provides governing guidelines (e.g., model design guidelines) which enhance the transfer of the EcoPOST framework into practice. Tool support is available as well. Finally, we present the results of two online surveys, three case studies, and one controlled software experiment. Based on these empirical and experimental research activities, we are able to validate evaluation concepts underlying the EcoPOST framework and additionally demonstrate its practical applicability

A Modeling Paradigm for Integrating Processes and Data at the Micro Level

Despite the widespread adoption of BPM, there exist many business processes not adequately supported by existing BPM technology. In previous work we reported on the properties of these processes. As a major insight we learned that, in accordance to the data model comprising object types and object relations, the modeling and execution of processes can be based on two levels of granularity: object behavior and object interactions. This paper focuses on micro processes capturing object behavior and constituting a fundamental pillar of our framework for object-aware process management. Our approach applies the well established concept of modeling object behavior in terms of states and state transitions. Opposed to existing work, we establish a mapping between attribute values and objects states to ensure compliance between them. Finally, we provide a well-dened operational semantics enabling the automatic and dynamic generation of most end-user components at run-time (e.g., overview tables and user forms)

Unleashing the Effectiveness of Process-oriented Information Systems: Problem Analysis, Critical Success Factors and Implications

Process-oriented information systems (IS) aim at the computerized support of business processes. So far, contemporary IS have often fail to meet this goal. To better understand this drawback, to systematically identify its rationales, and to derive critical success factors for business process support, we conducted three empirical studies: an exploratory case study in the automotive domain, an online survey among 79 IT professionals, and another online survey among 70 business process management (BPM) experts. This paper summarizes the findings of these studies, puts them in relation with each other, and uses them to show that ”process-orientation” is scarce and ”process-awareness” is needed in IS engineering

AgileTalk: A Conversational Virtual Reality Synthetic Platform for Training in Agile Processes

In this article, the main motivations and conceptual basis of using chatbot-based technology as the platform to support education and training on agile development are presented, using ScrumTalk as an example. ScrumTalk is a prototype of an intelligent conversational core for the AgileTalk platform under development for an Intelligent Synthetic Agile Software Development Environment. AgileTalk represents an ambitious evolution of Virtual Scrum (a Virtual Reality-based platform for Scrum training we developed some years ago) towards a synthetic 3D conversational-based full-fledged process training and development environment. This evolution means a step further "Virtual" environments towards "Synthetic" ones where actors can be whatever human or synthetic alter egos that interact through natural language to carry out the activities involved in a defined process according to their role. ScrumTalk represents the proof of concept for the AgileTalk platform's underlying paradigm.Sociedad Argentina de Informática e Investigación Operativ

Process oriented human resource information systems : supporting a process orientation in human resources through information systems

This thesis proposes a design for an information system that combines the functionalities required by human resource (HR) activities and a framework that allows their execution based on augmented business process models, a process oriented human resource information system (proHRIS). During the gain in popularity of business process management and its spread in the last decades, the fundamental ideas of process orientation have spread to many different areas. From the development of information systems, to the management of organizational knowledge, more and more areas explicitly are based around the operational business processes of the organization. While the idea of process orientation has found resonance in specific parts of human resource management (HRM), no holistic process oriented HRM has emerged. To support the establishment of such an approach, this thesis proposes the design of an information system that allows a process oriented execution of typical HR activities. The design is kept on a relatively high abstraction level to discuss the components required for the process oriented execution of all of HRM core functions: staffing, appraisal, development, and compensation. To offer more concrete insight, exemplary, more detailed, use cases are developed. The feasability of the proposed design of a process oriented human resource information system (proHRIS) is demonstrated and the design is evaluated through the construction of a prototype which is used in a specific use case and the assessment of the elicited requirements of the system.In dieser Arbeit wird ein Entwurf für ein Informationssystem vorgeschlagen, dass die für Human Ressource (HR) Aktivitäten erforderlichen Funktionalitäten zur Verfügung stellt und gleichzeitig auf einem Framework basiert, welches die Ausführung dieser Aktivitäten mit Bezug zu erweiterten Geschäftsprozessmodellen ermöglicht. Das entworfene System hat die Bezeichnung prozessorientiertes Human Resource Informationssystem (proHRIS). Mit der zunehmenden Popularität des Geschäftsprozessmanagements und seiner Verbreitung in den letzten Jahrzehnten hat sich die Anwendung der grundlegenden Ideen der Prozessorientierung auf viele verschiedene unternehmerische Bereiche ausgedehnt. Von der Entwicklung von Informationssystemen bis hin zum Management von Organisationswissen nutzen immer mehr Vorgehensweisen Strategien, welche explizit auf die operativen Geschäftsprozesse der Organisation Bezug nehmen. Während die Idee der Prozessorientierung in spezifischen Bereichen des Personalmanagements (HRM) Anklang gefunden hat, ist kein ganzheitliches prozessorientiertes HRM entstanden. Zur Unterstützung der Etablierung eines solchen Ansatzes wird in dieser Arbeit der Entwurf eines Informationssystems vorgeschlagen, dass eine prozessorientierte Durchführung typischer HR-Aktivitäten ermöglicht. Das Design wird auf einer relativ hohen Abstraktionsebene gehalten, um die Komponenten für die prozessorientierte Ausführung von allen HRM-Kernfunktionen (Personal, Beurteilungen, Entwicklung und Vergütung) zu diskutieren. Um konkretere Einsichten zu bieten, werden exemplarisch detailliertere Anwendungsfälle entwickelt. Die Machbarkeit des vorgeschlagenen Entwurfs eines prozessorientiertes Human Resource Informationssystem (proHRIS) wird demonstriert und das Design wird durch die Konstruktion eines Prototypen, der in einem spezifischen Anwendungsfall verwendet wird, und durch die Erfüllung der ermittelten Anforderungen des Systems bewertet.Cette thèse propose la conception d'un système d'information combinant les fonctionnalités requises par les activités ressources humaines (RH) et un cadre permettant leur exécution à partir de modèles de processus d'affaires augmentés ; un système d'information des ressources humaines (SIRH) orienté processus d'affaires (process oriented Human Resource Information System : proHRIS). La popularité de la gestion des processus d'affaires a augmenté au cours des dernières décennies. En conséquence, les idées fondamentales de l'orientation processus ont eu un large écho dans beaucoup de domaines différents. Du développement des systèmes d'information à la gestion des connaissances organisationnelles, de plus en plus de domaines sont explicitement basés sur les processus d’affaires ou opérationnels de l'organisation. Alors que l'idée de l'orientation processus a trouvé une résonance dans des parties spécifiques de la gestion des ressources humaines, aucune méthode de gestion orientée processus holistique n'est apparue. Pour soutenir le développement d'une telle méthode, cette thèse propose la conception d'un système d'information qui permet une exécution orientée processus des activités ressources humaines typiques. La conception est maintenue à un niveau d'abstraction relativement élevé pour discuter des composants requis pour l'exécution orientée processus de toutes les activités typiques: dotation, évaluation, développement et rémunération. Pour offrir une vision plus concrète, des cas d'utilisation plus détaillés sont développés. La démonstration de faisabilité du système ainsi que l’évaluation de sa conception sont réalisées par la construction d’un prototype utilisé dans un cas d’utilisation spécifique et par l’évaluation des exigences du système