Configurable Process Models as a Basis for Reference Modeling

Off-the-shelf packages such as SAP need to be configured to suit the requirements of an organization. Reference models support the configuration of these systems. Existing reference models use rather traditional languages. For example, the SAP reference model uses Eventdriven Process Chains (EPCs). Unfortunately, traditional languages like EPCs do not capture the configuration-aspects well. Consider for example the concept of "choice" in the control-flow perspective. Although any process modeling language, including EPCs, offers a choice construct (e.g., the XOR connector in EPCs), a single construct will not be able to capture the time dimension, scope, and impact of a decision. Some decisions are taken at run-time for a single case while other decisions are taken at build-time impacting a whole organization and all current and future cases. This position paper discusses the need for configurable process models as a basic building block for reference modeling. The focus is on the control-flow perspective. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2006

Component-based process modelling in health care

Structural changes and increasing market dynamics in the health care sector intensify the hospitals’ need for cost-savings and process optimization. A first step is the documentation of processes in order to clarify the actual needs. As in health care processes are rather complex and often different players with divergent demands are involved, a disciplined approach to effectively and efficiently model processes is required. For this purpose, in this contribution a component-based modelling approach is presented and applied

Document Variant Management – Facilitating Enterprise System Definition, Configuration, and Interoperability

Enterprise Systems (ES) provide a standardized means to assist operations and management. Being off-the-shelf software, ES provide a generic approach and they have to be configured to the enterprise’s requirements. The customization of ES is a complex and costly task, therefore especially small and midsize enterprises (SME) flinch from doing so. Independent software vendors can assist SMEs in adapting ES to their needs. To be of reasonable economical value, it must be possible to facilitate the customization process with configuration mechanisms that allow generating customer specific processes and documents from a generic model-based repository. Several high-level configuration mechanisms are presented that add up to a comprehensive procedure for document variant management

An extended configurable UML activity diagram and a transformation algorithm for business process reference modeling

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solutions provide generic off-the-shelf reference models usually known as best practices . The configuration !individualization of the reference model to meet specific requirements of business end users however, is a difficult task. The available modeling languages do not provide a complete configurable language that could be used to model configurable reference models. More specifically, there is no algorithm that monitors the transformation of configurable UML Activity Diagram (AD) models while preserving the syntactic correctness of the model. To fill these gaps we propose an extended UML AD modeling language which we named Configurable UML Activity Diagram (C-UML AD). The C-UML AD is used to represent a reference model while showing all the variation points and corresponding dependencies within the model. The C-UML AD covers the requirements and attributes of a configurable modeling language as prescribed by earlier researchers who developed Configurable EPC (C-EPC). We also propose a complete algorithm that transforms the C-UML AD business model to an individual consistent UML AD business model, where the end user\u27s configuration values are consistent with the constraints of the model. Meanwhile, the syntactic correctness of the transformed model is preserved. We validated the Transformation Algorithm by showing how all the transformation steps of the algorithm preserve the syntactic correctness of any given configurable business model, as prescribed by earlier researchers, and by running it on different sets of test scenarios to demonstrate its correctness. We developed a tool to apply the Transformation Algorithm and to demonstrate its validity on a set of test cases as well as a real case study that was used by earlier researchers who developed the C-EPC

Modeling Business Process Variability

This master thesis presents research findings on business process variability modeling. Its main goal is to analyze inherent problems of business process variability and solve them simply, innovatively and effectively. To achieve this goal, process variability is defined by analyzing scientific literature, its main problems identified and is illustrated using a healthcare running example: process variability is classified into process variability within the domain space and over time. These two forms of process variability respectively lead to process variability modeling and process model evolution problems. After defining the main problems inherent to process variability, the focus of this research project is defined: solving process variability modeling problems. First current business process modeling languages are evaluated to assess the effectiveness of their respective modeling concepts when modeling process variability, using a newly created set of evaluation criteria and the healthcare running example. The following business process modeling languages are evaluated: Event driven process chains (EPC), the Business Process Modeling Notation (BPMN) and Configurable EPC (C-EPC). Business process variability modeling and Software product line engineering have similar problems. Therefore the variability modeling concepts developed by software product line engineering are analyzed. Feature diagrams and software configuration management are the main variability management concepts provided by software product line engineering. To apply these variability management concepts to model process variability meant combining them with existing business modeling languages. Riebisch feature diagrams are combined with C-EPC to form Feature-EPC. Applying software configuration management, meant merging Change Oriented Versioning with basic EPC to create COV-EPC, and merging the Proteus Configuration Language with basic EPC to design PCL-EPC. Finally these newly created business process modeling languages are also evaluated using the newly designed evaluation criteria and the healthcare running example. EPC or BPMN are not suited to model business process variability within the domain space. C-EPC provide explicit means to model business process variability, however the process models tend to get big very fast. Furthermore the syntax, the contextual constraints and the semantics of the configuration requirements and guidelines used to configure the C-EPC process models are unclear. Feature-EPC improve C-EPC with domain modeling capability and clearly defined configuration rules: their syntax, contextual constraints and semantics have been clearly defined using a context free grammar in Backus-Naur form. Furthermore, consistent combinations of features and configuration rules are ensured using respectively constraints and a conflict resolution algorithm. However, Feature-EPC and C-EPC suffer from the same weakness: large configurable process models. In COV-EPC and PCL-EPC the problem of large configurable process models is solved. COV-EPC ensures consistent combinations of options and configuration rules using respectively validities and a conflict resolution algorithm. PCL-EPC guarantees consistent combinations of process fragments by means of a PCL specification

Creating a Reference Model for the Creative Industries – Evaluation of Configurable Event Driven Process Chains in Practice

The Australian screen business is facing new challenges to stay competitive. Increasing globalization on the one hand offers new opportunities for service-related companies but on the other hand raises the competition in drawing the attention of production companies. Motivated by a lack of process-centered management support, this work aims to deliver a starting point for an application of Business Process Management principles and practices within the Creative Industries to help facing the new challenges. I therefore present a reference process model for the post production part of screen business productions. To allow for comprehensive adaptation to project-specific scenarios or a company’s requirements the model is developed as Configurable Even-Driven Process Chain. The designated reference modeling language provides means to clearly specify process variations. In a second step I use the application in a real-life case to contribute to the empirical validation of the modeling language and to reflect on the relevance and completeness of the language

The Innovation Cascade: A Five-Level Framework for Building Enterprise Innovation Systems

This Major Research Paper (MRP) describes a framework for creating more innovative, lower-cost enterprise innovation systems (EISs). Through a literature review, I have identified and described ten driving forces behind the performance of EISs: innovation ecosystems, innovation strategy, enterprise architecture, innovation inputs, the innovation process, portfolio management, innovation working practices, innovation accounting, innovation culture, and innovation tools. Drawing from the literature, I have gathered and analyzed 250 innovation approaches, such as horizon scanning or value proposition design, to describe the five overarching areas involved in creating EISs: ecosystem, strategy, architecture, people, and infrastructure. Through eleven practitioner interviews and system mapping, I have shaped the five areas into a prototype framework, which I call the Innovation Cascade. The Innovation Cascade provides EIS builders with a process for creating or improving an EIS by framing missing areas or highlighting tensions between the five areas of an EIS. To test the Innovation Cascade, I conducted a case study with the Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System (OMERS). In the case study, I mapped OMERS’s EIS to the Innovation Cascade, designed an EIS research function for OMERS, and offered ten recommendations for improving OMERS’s EIS. Through the case study, I determined the Innovation Cascade is effective for building or enhancing EISs and propose next steps for further refining it. Finally, I have suggested three other models to augment the Innovation Cascade. First, five modes that EISs can exhibit: informal, linear, distributed, embedded and emergent. Second, patterns or predictable configurations each area can exhibit. Third, five steps that match each area of the Innovation Cascade with appropriate tools and actions. Together, the three models and the Innovation Cascade offer a framework for EIS builders to design, improve, maintain and understand EISs, as well as communicate EISs to stakeholders

On the usage of theories in the field of Wirtschaftsinformatik : a quantitative literature analysis

The development of theories is a central goal of every scientific discipline. Hence, theory development is also of considerable importance to the field of Wirtschaftsinformatik (WI), which seeks to progress as a scientific discipline. WI is the discipline focussing on research and design of information systems conducted by the German-speaking community. WI has slightly different objectives, focusses on different methods and different desired results compared to the Anglo-American Information Systems (IS) research discipline. Although both disciplines deal with information systems as their main research object, Mertens et al. (2014) propose to consider both disciplines as halfsister disciplines (in German: Halbschwesterdisziplinen). Against the background of the growing importance of theory development in WI, a lot of WI research contributions use and reference existing theories and theoretical models for different purposes, e.g. to derive and test hypotheses or to justify design decisions in the context of information systems’ design and development. Often, these theories originate from related scientific disciplines like economics or psychology. However, as it is still not clear which theories are of particular importance to WI research, this report aims at presenting a detailed analysis of the current usage of theories in WI and addresses the following research questions: Which theories are used in WI research and where do they originate from? and How has the usage of theories developed over time? These questions were examined based on a systematic analysis of a broad amount of scientific literature. Thus, this report is supposed to make a contribution to the ongoing discussion on the theoretical foundations of WI. Our analysis shows that 1,160 WI articles from 2000 to 2011 do, in large part, reference the same theories as Anglo-American Information Systems (IS) research. These findings are discussed and implications are highlighted

Role-based Adaptation of Business Reference Models to Application Models: An Enterprise Modeling Methodology for Software Construction

Large software systems are in need of a construction plan to determine and define every concept and element used in order to not end up in complex, unusable, and cost-intensive systems. Different modeling languages, like UML, support the development of these construction plans and visualize them for the system’s stakeholders. Reference models are a specific kind of construction plan, used as templates for information systems and already capture business domain knowledge for reuse and tailoring. By adaptation, reference models are tailored to enterprise-specific application models, which can be used for software construction and maintenance. However, current adaptation methods suffer from the limitations of pure object-oriented development (e.g., identity issues, large inheritance trees, and inflexibility). In this thesis, the usage of roles as the sole adaptation mechanism is proposed to solve these challenges. With the help of conceptual roles, it is possible to create rich model variations and adaptations from existing (industry standard) reference models, and it is simpler to react to model evolution and changing business logic. Adaptations can be specified with more precision by maintaining or even increasing the model’s expressiveness. As a consequence, the role-enriched final application model can be used to describe software systems in more detail, with different perspectives, and, if available, can be implemented with a role supporting programming language. However, even without this step, the application model itself will provide valuable insights into the overall construction plan of a software system by the combination of structure and behavior and a clear separation of relatively stable domain knowledge from its use case specific adaptation

A New Framework for Enterprise Resource Planning Systems Implementation for SMEs in the Industrial Manufacturing Sector in Iran

This thesis proposes an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) implementation model for small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the discrete manufacturing industry sector in Iran. Three discrete manufacturing SMEs, in two different geographical locations in Iran (Isfahan and Tehran), were used as the case studies for primary qualitative research and data analysis. The proposed model identifies ERP implementation phases, three main dimensions of change and a range of related change elements that influence ERP project success in the discrete manufacturing sector in Iran. The three main dimensions of change are technology deployment, people competencies, and process improvement; and these are evident in this study’s three implementation phases: pre-implementation, implementation, and post-implementation. Being exploratory in nature and adopting an interpretivist epistemology, the research pursues a qualitative approach, consisting of a survey (with follow-up interviews), questionnaires, semi-structured interviews and documentary evidence for data collection. The case study approach allowed the researcher to gain an in depth understandings of the nature of ERP implementation in discrete manufacturing SMEs and the degree of success they have achieved. The first set of data was collected through a literature review and qualitative survey of 75 manufacturing SMEs in Iran in order to understand the extent of IS/ERP systems implementation in Iranian manufacturing SMEs. The findings from the literature were used to develop a provisional conceptual ERP implementation model. The second set of data was collected from three discrete manufacturing SMEs through questionnaires and semi-structured interviews conducted with various employees. The conceptual ERP implementation model was further improved based on findings drawn from the case study research. The final model was developed to represent ERP implementation phases, dimensions and elements of change in the context of SMEs in the discrete manufacturing sector in Iran. The model is a contribution to knowledge in this field, and affords IT practitioners and professionals a better understanding of the potential challenges they may face during such ERP projects. The model enables them to balance the three dimensions of change, providing a roadmap of change elements that need addressing as an ERP project progresses from phase to phase