A meta-model based approach to the description of resources and skills

The management of intra- and inter-organizational business processes is a significant issue that influences company’s success. Many business processes are not fully automated and require human interaction. Therefore, responsibilities for tasks have to be assigned by workflow management systems. Common resource models allow the selection of resources according to their roles, thus neglecting competences and skills. In this article we present an extensible resource meta-model that allows the modeling of resources including their competences, skills and knowledge. Furthermore we propose the usage of these criteria to enable a more flexible assignment of resources to tasks. In particular our approach fosters the alignment of business process modeling and human resource planning. This combination facilitates several opportunities on both sides and offers potential for enhanced scheduling of adequate resources in comparison to pure role based decisions

Aligning business processes and work practices

Current business process modeling methodologies offer little guidance regarding how to keep business process models aligned with their actual execution. This paper describes how to achieve this goal by uncovering and supervising business process models in connection with work practices using BAM. BAM is a methodology for business process modeling, supervision and improvement that works at two dimensions; the dimension of processes and the dimension of work practices. The business modeling component of BAM is illustrated with a case study in an organizational setting

Organization of Multi-Agent Systems: An Overview

In complex, open, and heterogeneous environments, agents must be able to reorganize towards the most appropriate organizations to adapt unpredictable environment changes within Multi-Agent Systems (MAS). Types of reorganization can be seen from two different levels. The individual agents level (micro-level) in which an agent changes its behaviors and interactions with other agents to adapt its local environment. And the organizational level (macro-level) in which the whole system changes it structure by adding or removing agents. This chapter is dedicated to overview different aspects of what is called MAS Organization including its motivations, paradigms, models, and techniques adopted for statically or dynamically organizing agents in MAS.Comment: 12 page

Collaborative method to maintain business process models updated

Business process models are often forgotten after their creation and its representation is not usually updated. This appears to be negative as processes evolve over time. This paper discusses the issue of business process models maintenance through the definition of a collaborative method that creates interaction contexts enabling business actors to discuss about business processes, sharing business knowledge. The collaboration method extends the discussion about existing process representations to all stakeholders promoting their update. This collaborative method contributes to improve business process models, allowing updates based in change proposals and discussions, using a groupware tool that was developed. Four case studies were developed in real organizational environment. We came to the conclusion that the defined method and the developed tool can help organizations to maintain a business process model updated based on the inputs and consequent discussions taken by the organizational actors who participate in the processes.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Applying the business process and practice alignment meta-model: Daily practices and process modelling

Background: Business Process Modelling (BPM) is one of the most important phases of information system design. Business Process (BP) meta-models allow capturing informational and behavioural aspects of business processes. Unfortunately, standard BP meta-modelling approaches focus just on process description, providing different BP models. It is not possible to compare and identify related daily practices in order to improve BP models. This lack of information implies that further research in BP meta-models is needed to reflect the evolution/change in BP. Considering this limitation, this paper introduces a new BP meta-model designed by Business Process and Practice Alignment Meta-model (BPPAMeta-model). Our intention is to present a meta-model that addresses features related to the alignment between daily work practices and BP descriptions. Objectives: This paper intends to present a meta-model which is going to integrate daily work information into coherent and sound process definitions. Methods/Approach: The methodology employed in the research follows a design-science approach. Results: The results of the case study are related to the application of the proposed meta-model to align the specification of a BP model with work practices models. Conclusions: This meta-model can be used within the BPPAM methodology to specify or improve business processes models based on work practice descriptions

The Impact of Human Capital and Organizational Characteristics on the Business Value of Information Technology

In order for a company to operate effectively within today’s marketplace, an information system (IS) represents a necessary business asset in terms of efficiency and productivity. Still, despite the ongoing advances in technology, an IS stands out as an expensive asset due to the amount of change that it brings to organizational life. Its real value, however, must be examined in terms of its interaction with other resources of the firm. Hence, it is necessary to understand the factors that affect the business value of information technology (BVIT). This research addresses the human capital characteristics and organizational characteristics of a firm, resources that are potentially complementary with IT, and their impact on BVIT. The employees’ diversity and knowledge and the company’s organizational climate and structure represent variables that are expected to affect BVIT. This research uses the resource-based view of the firm as a framework for examining IS, while modeling human capital and organizational characteristics as resources of the firm. It also utilizes concepts from the literature on employee diversity and shared knowledge in order to develop theories and hypotheses about the phenomenon. The resulting hypotheses are built into a research model that is tested using Partial Least Squares, with the relevant data deriving from a large database of Canadian firms that was collected by Statistics Canada in 2005 using the Workplace and Employee Survey. The results show that both resources – human capital and organizational characteristics – impact the business value of IT. These findings have many implications for research and practice, and they contribute to the advancement of knowledge within the field of information systems