On Modeling and Analyzing Cost Factors in Information Systems Engineering

Introducing enterprise information systems (EIS) is usually associated with high costs. It is therefore crucial to understand those factors that determine or influence these costs. Though software cost estimation has received considerable attention during the last decades, it is difficult to apply existing approaches to EIS. This difficulty particularly stems from the inability of these methods to deal with the dynamic interactions of the many technological, organizational and projectdriven cost factors which specifically arise in the context of EIS. Picking up this problem, we introduce the EcoPOST framework to investigate the complex cost structures of EIS engineering projects through qualitative cost evaluation models. This paper extends previously described concepts and introduces design rules and guidelines for cost evaluation models in order to enhance the development of meaningful and useful EcoPOST cost evaluation models. A case study illustrates the benefits of our approach. Most important, our EcoPOST framework is an important tool supporting EIS engineers in gaining a better understanding of the critical factors determining the costs of EIS engineering projects

HOMEBOTS: Intelligent Decentralized Services for Energy Management

The deregulation of the European energy market, combined with emerging advanced capabilities of information technology, provides strategic opportunities for new knowledge-oriented services on the power grid. HOMEBOTS is the namewe have coined for one of these innovative services: decentralized power load management at the customer side, automatically carried out by a `society' of interactive household, industrial and utility equipment. They act as independent intelligent agents that communicate and negotiate in a computational market economy. The knowledge and competence aspects of this application are discussed, using an improved \ud version of task analysis according to the COMMONKADS knowledge methodology. Illustrated by simulation results, we indicate how customer knowledge can be mobilized to achieve joint goals of cost and energy savings. General implications for knowledge creation and its management are discussed

An Object Oriented Approach for Business Process Reengineering

Successful Business Process Reengineering (BPR) projects depend on the appropriate business process modeling techniques. On the other side, Information technology (IT) is considered as a key enabler of BPR. Since the object-oriented technique became the most common approach for implementing information systems, the object oriented approach to business process modeling seems to be the best way for more successful BPR projects. This work aims to develop a modeling method for BPR. This method should fill the gap between modeling business process and creating a supportive information system for the redesigned processes in BPR. The present work introduces BPR modeling method that links object orientation with business process modeling. The proposed method integrates an object-oriented modeling method (An Extended object-oriented modeling method) with object-oriented modeling language (Unified Modeling language UML). Design science methodology was used to develop the proposed modeling method. The proposed method was implemented into two types of business process case studies. The implementation showed a promising modeling technique for representing the business process and linking business process modeling with the development of the supportive information system

Compliance Check of Health Care Process Models

Improving medical care quality and reducing care costs requires the interaction of patients, healthcare professionals andmedical associations. Patients want to be informed about treatments, healthcare professionals demand easy access to bestpractice information and medical associations need to communicate evidence based guidelines. The configuration of medicalcare workflow systems and the compliance check of care processes according to national and international guidelines is themotivation for this paper. We are following a process model based approach for the management of health care networks. Wepresent a method for the compliance check of process models and enable a configuration of information systems with processmodels. The application of the method as well as the discussion of the practical benefits is illustrated by a real world casestudy

A PROCESS-BASED APPROACH TO KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT

This paper analyses the relationship between business process modelling, knowledge management and information systems development projects. The paper’s main objective is to present business rules as the encoded knowledge of corporate business practices. Further, it introduces a rule-based business activity meta-model as a repository in which business knowledge can be captured and traced from their origin in the business environment through to their implementation in information systems. The case study of the Croatian Ministry of Finance is presented, discussing the practical experience in integrating business process repository and organisational knowledge as the foundation for information system development

A PROCESS-BASED APPROACH TO KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT

This paper analyses the relationship between business process modelling, knowledge management and information systems development projects. The paper’s main objective is to present business rules as the encoded knowledge of corporate business practices. Further, it introduces a rule-based business activity meta-model as a repository in which business knowledge can be captured and traced from their origin in the business environment through to their implementation in information systems. The case study of the Croatian Ministry of Finance is presented, discussing the practical experience in integrating business process repository and organisational knowledge as the foundation for information system development

A diagnostic investigation and a corrective model for implementing change in response to innovation

Organizational change can be described as a series of activities oriented towards modifying behaviors and structures within the organization. These series of activities are interconnected internally and externally and are affected by human, operational and environmental factors that dynamically influence decisions and processes in the organization. There has been a significant amount of work in organizational change, using both behavioral and systemic approaches. Moreover it has been argued that research in change processes should include also the dynamic relationship between change processes and outcomes to detect how organizational change context, processes and the pace of change affect performance outcomes. Despite the amount of research, there is a need for more profound studies exploring the contexts, content, and processes involved in a change initiative. This research proposes a model to help organizations implement change initiatives with an increased likelihood of success. The Influence Model for Organizational Change – IMOC - was developed with the hope of better demonstrating the dynamics that take place in the organization by using a systems engineering view. As an exercise to verify the relationships that govern IMOC a systems dynamic simulation model was partially developed. The dynamic simulation confirmed the impact of variables such as employees’ and management participation, environment and delay in implementing policies on the level of resistance to change existing in the organization.Organizational change can be described as a series of activities oriented towards modifying behaviors and structures within the organization. These series of activities are interconnected internally and externally and are affected by human, operational and environmental factors that dynamically influence decisions and processes in the organization. There has been a significant amount of work in organizational change, using both behavioral and systemic approaches. Moreover it has been argued that research in change processes should include also the dynamic relationship between change processes and outcomes to detect how organizational change context, processes and the pace of change affect performance outcomes. Despite the amount of research, there is a need for more profound studies exploring the contexts, content, and processes involved in a change initiative. This research proposes a model to help organizations implement change initiatives with an increased likelihood of success. The Influence Model for Organizational Change – IMOC - was developed with the hope of better demonstrating the dynamics that take place in the organization by using a systems engineering view. As an exercise to verify the relationships that govern IMOC a systems dynamic simulation model was partially developed. The dynamic simulation confirmed the impact of variables such as employees’ and management participation, environment and delay in implementing policies on the level of resistance to change existing in the organization