Data-driven Design of Engineering Processes with COREPROModeler

Enterprises increasingly demand IT support for the coordination of their engineering processes, which often consist of hundreds up to thousands of sub-processes. From a technical viewpoint, these sub-processes have to be concurrently executed and synchronized considering numerous interdependencies. So far, this coordination has mainly been accomplished manually, which has resulted in errors and inconsistencies. In order to deal with this problem, we have to better understand the interdependencies between the subprocesses to be coordinated. In particular, we can benefit from the fact that sub-processes are often correlated to the assembly of a product (represented by a product data structure). This information can be utilized for the modeling and execution of so-called data-driven process structures. In this paper, we present the COREPRO demonstrator that supports the data-driven modeling of these process structures. The approach explicitly establishes a close linkage between product data structures and engineering processes

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

Context-based Configuration of Process Variants

When designing process-aware information systems, usually, variants of the same process type have to be defined and maintained. Each of these process variants constitutes an adjustment of the same process to specific requirements building the variant context. Current business process management tools do not support the context-based definition and configuration of such variants in an adequate manner. Instead, each process variant has to be defined from scratch and be kept in a separate model. This results in considerable redundancies when modeling and adapting process variants, and is also a time consuming and error-prone procedure. This paper presents a more flexible and context-based approach for configuring and managing process variants. In particular, we allow for the configuration of process variants by applying a context-dependent set of well-defined change operations to a base process

Issues in Modeling Process Variants with Provop

For a particular business process, typically, different variants exist. Each of them constitutes an adjustment of a basic process (e.g. a reference process) to specific requirements building the process context. Contemporary business process management (BPM) tools, however, do not adequately support the modeling and management of process variants. Either the variants have to be specified by separate process models or they are expressed in terms of conditional branches within the same process model. Both methods can lead to high model redundancies, which make model adaptations a time consuming and error-prone task. In this paper we discuss advanced modeling concepts of our Provop approach, which provides a flexible and powerful solution for modeling and managing process variants. With Provop, a particular process variant can be configured at a high level of abstraction by applying a set of well-defined change operations to a basic process model

Guaranteeing Soundness of Configurable Process Variants in Provop

Usually, for a particular business process a multitude of variants exists. Each of them constitutes an adjustment of a reference process model to specific requirements building the process context. While some progress has been achieved regarding the configuration of process variants, there exists only little work on how to accomplish this in a sound and efficient manner, especially when considering the large number of process variants that exist in practice as well as the many syntactical and semantical constraints they have to obey. In this paper we discuss advanced concepts for the context- and constraint-based configuration of process variants, and show how they can be utilized to ensure soundness of the configured process variants. Enhancing process-aware information systems with the capability to easily configure sound process models, belonging to the same process family and fitting to the given application context, will enable a new quality in engineering process-aware information systems

On the Context-aware, Personalized Delivery of Process Information: Viewpoints, Problems, and Requirements

Enterprises are confronted with an increasing amount of data. This data overload makes it difficult to provide knowledge-workers and decision-makers with the needed information. Particularly challenging in this context is the integrated provision of both structured and unstructured information depending on the current process context and user, i.e., the context-aware, personalized delivery of process information. Examples of unstructured process information include all kinds of office documents or e-mails. Examples of structured process information are business process models or data from enterprise information systems. Picking up the need for a context-aware, personalized delivery of process information, this paper presents results from three empirical studies: two exploratory case studies from the automotive domain and the healthcare sector, and an online survey among 219 participants. In a first step, we identify and describe problems with respect to process-oriented information management in general and the personalized provision of process information in particular. In a second step, we derive requirements on the user-adequate handling of process information

Ausarbeitung eines Navigationskonzepts zur Navigation in komplexen Prozesswelten

Unternehmen müssen heute mit einer steigenden Menge an Unternehmensdaten (Prozessinformationen), sowie mit immer komplexeren Prozessmodellen umgehen können. Insbesondere in der Automobilindustrie können Entwicklungsprozesse hunderte bis zu tausende Prozessschritte beinhalten. Eine effiziente IT-Unterstützung zur Abbildung dieser Prozesse und verwandter Prozessinformationen ist hier essentiell. Prozessinformationen, wie Beschreibungen, Richtlinien oder Templates, müssen dabei für Mitarbeiter kontextbezogen und schnell zugänglich sein. Hierzu wird von einem Automobilhersteller ein Prozessinformationsportal eingesetzt. Die statische Verlinkung von Prozessmodellen und Prozessinformationen bietet allerdings noch keine optimale Grundlage, um Benutzern einen flexiblen Zugang zu Prozessmodellen und verwandten Prozessinformationen zu ermöglichen. In dieser Arbeit wird ein im niPRO Projekt entwickeltes Prozessnavigationskonzept auf das bestehende Prozessinformationsportal abgebildet. Das Konzept erlaubt dem Benutzer die Navigation in und zwischen Prozessmodellen und Prozessinformationen in verschiedenen Navigations-Dimensionen. Anhand zweier Anwendungsszenarien wird dabei detailliert erläutert, wie die flexible Navigation Benutzer bei der Suche nach den benötigten Informationen unterstützen kann. Abschließend werden Ergebnisse eines durchgeführten Nutzerexperiments vorgestellt, in dem das Navigationskonzept untersucht und bewertet wurde

A Framework for the Intelligent Delivery and User-Adequate Visualization of Process Information

A continuously increasing amount of data makes it difficult for knowledge-workers to identify the information they need to perform their tasks in the best possible way. Particularly challenging in this context is the alignment of process-related information (e.g., working instructions, best practices) with business processes. In fact, process-related information (process information for short) and business processes are usually handled separately. On one hand, shared drives, databases, and information systems are used to manage process information, on the other, process management technology provides the basis for managing business processes. In practice, enterprises often establish (Intranet) portals to connect both perspectives. However, such portals are not sufficient. Reasons are that process information is usually delivered without considering the current work context and business processes are presented to process participants in a rather static manner. Therefore, enterprises crave for new ways of making process information available. This paper picks up this challenge and presents the niPRO framework. niPRO is based on semantic technology and enables the intelligent delivery and user-adequate visualization of comprehensive process information

On the Integration of Electrical/Electronic Product Data in the Automotive Domain

The recent innovation of modern cars has mainly been driven by the development of new as well as the continuous improvement of existing electrical and electronic (E/E) components, including sensors, actuators, and electronic control units. This trend has been accompanied by an increasing complexity of E/E components and their numerous interdependencies. In addition, external impact factors (e.g., changes of regulations, product innovations) demand for more sophisticated E/E product data management (E/E-PDM). Since E/E product data is usually scattered over a large number of distributed, heterogeneous IT systems, application-spanning use cases are difficult to realize (e.g., ensuring the consistency of artifacts corresponding to different development phases, plausibility of logical connections between electronic control units). To tackle this challenge, the partial integration of E/E product data as well as corresponding schemas becomes necessary. This paper presents the properties of a typical IT system landscape related to E/E-PDM, reveals challenges emerging in this context, and elicits requirements for E/E-PDM. Based on this, insights into our framework, which targets at the partial integration of E/E product data, are given. Such an integration will foster E/E product data integration and hence contribute to an improved E/E product quality