65 research outputs found
EMBRACING CONCEPTUAL MODELLING TO ENABLE THE MEDIATION ROLE OF ENTERPRISE INFORMATION SYSTEMS
Nowadays, digital environments are getting a more important role than ever in shaping the way in which enterprise operations are conducted and enterprises are being developed. Traditional information systems (IS) used by enterprises need to evolve in order to accommodate the shift of their role from representation to mediation, role that has been recently conceptualized but not sufficiently researched to identify means that enable its operationalization across domains and purposes. This work identifies what are the key enablers and how should these be applied regardless of the domain of interest. For this, our paper showcases the development of a new enterprise system that serves as a proof-of concept artifact that operationalizes the before mentioned new role of the IS. Our proposal relies on Conceptual Modelling together with all the other related enablers like Digital Twins, metamodeling platforms or model-driven operation. In this way, we want to highlight the benefits of Conceptual Modelling in providing a new abstractization layer between the digital and the physical worlds, supporting roundtrip engineering capabilities. Our example concerns the modern organization that continuously aims to become more innovative and gain competitive advantage therefore, it employs smart devices like drones in different business operations
Designing behavior change support systems in the context of knowledge documentation: development of theory and practical implementation
Although innovation and operating efficiently require creating, transferring, and applying knowledge, successful knowledge documentation remains a challenge for organizations. While knowledge management systems support knowledge management activities, the missing link to applying knowledge management relies on human actions and their behaviors.
This dissertation extends prior design knowledge about designing Behavior Change Support Systems in the context of knowledge documentation by developing theory and showing practical implementation. Combining technical and psychological models within information systems frameworks based on the principles of abstraction, originality, justification, and benefit, this dissertation draws on design science to propose prescriptive knowledge, for example, in the form of design principles and a specific artifact
The Effect of Risk Representation Using Colors and Symbols in Business Process Models on Operational Risk Management Performance
The operational management of risk and internal controls (RIC) makes increasing use of visual representations to support tasks such as risk assessment and control activity definition. The strengths and weaknesses of different representations are typically assessed by cognitive theories that assume an analytical and an intuitive mode of information processing. Previous research has focused mainly on the analytical risk assessment while intuitive information processing has largely been neglected. We develop a theoretical argument based on dual-process theory, which explains why RIC representational alternatives influence different levels of information processing. We test our hypotheses with the help of an online experiment using accountants and operation managers recruited via MTurk (N = 166). Our results suggest that highlighting risk and controls in business process modeling and notation (BPMN) by using color improves risk understanding, control understanding, and the identification of control improvements, which help reduce the risk in a given process. Furthermore, we do not find evidence that the inclusion of color leads to perception biases. This has implications for information systems research, which has primarily addressed the analytical processing of conceptual models. Our findings extend cognitive research on such models by adding an intuitive processing path that can improve the user’s risk management performance. For practitioners, our findings are particularly relevant because colors can be easily added as a secondary notation element without disguising the factual risk situation in processes
Metamodel-driven development of an assurance case notation
The Structured Assurance Case Metamodel (SACM) is a standard specified by the Object Management Group that defines a metamodel for representing structured assurance cases. It is developed to support standardisation and interoperability in assurance case development. Unlike existing frameworks such as GSN and CAE, SACM (2.0) was not equipped with any visual notation that can be used to develop graphical assurance cases. A visual notation can be seen as an alternative representation to the textual form of a modelling language that can support the language's adoption by its users. The SACM concept is specified using a metamodel. We identified that there is a lack of a systematic approach that can be adopted to create a visual notation that considers the metamodel as part of the design process. This thesis proposes an approach that considers a metamodel structure as one of the inputs to developing a visual notation. The proposed approach could be used to develop any notation that is based upon a metamodel.
In this thesis, the application of the proposed approach is demonstrated in the development of the SACM notation. The produced SACM notation is evaluated through empirical studies involving novice and experienced users. The evaluation results shows that experienced users found the resulting SACM notation is more intuitive when compared to an existing notation. It is important to notice that the proposed approach requires many distinct design decisions when applying the approach to produce a notation. Thus, the development of the notation is sensitive to the design decision made by the notation designer that could affect the effectiveness of the resulting notation. Based on the evaluation results, the proposed approach is demonstrated to be helpful in developing a visual notation based on a defined metamodel. Furthermore, the resulting SACM notation is also shown to be useful, and able to be adopted by the practitioners to develop assurance cases. This is indicated by the adoption of the produced notation by an international standard body (Object Management Group); the SACM notation has been published as part of version 2.1 of the SACM standard
Designing a visual grammar to enable more effective stakeholder participation in scoping organizational change: a physics of notations approach
Successful organization change depends on effectively engaging impacted stakeholders
early in the change process so that change leaders and stakeholders have a common understanding of
the scope, benefits, and risks of the change. However, communicating a succinct and holistic view
of the change and gaining shared understanding on what needs to change can be challenging. The use
of sequential written communication and ad hoc graphics imposes a high cognitive load on
stakeholders. This results in reluctance or inability for stakeholders to engage when their
availability and mental resources are constrained due to operational demands. This research
explores the design of a conceptual modeling grammar that generates single page, intuitive diagrams
to reduce the cognitive load for stakeholders in understanding and defining the scope of
organizational change. We first developed a domain ontology and a grammar based on theory. We then
used the action design research approach to test and refine the grammar through three interventions
in service delivery change in healthcare organizations. In each intervention we were able to
overcome existing stakeholder engagement challenges and enhance stakeholder understanding of the scope of change being undertaken
Towards Measuring and Quantifying the Comprehensibility of Process Models -- The Process Model Comprehension Framework
Process models constitute crucial artifacts in modern information systems
and, hence, the proper comprehension of these models is of utmost importance in
the utilization of such systems. Generally, process models are considered from
two different perspectives: process modelers and readers. Both perspectives
share similarities and differences in the comprehension of process models
(e.g., diverse experiences when working with process models). The literature
proposed many rules and guidelines to ensure a proper comprehension of process
models for both perspectives. As a novel contribution in this context, this
paper introduces the Process Model Comprehension Framework (PMCF) as a first
step towards the measurement and quantification of the perspectives of process
modelers and readers as well as the interaction of both regarding the
comprehension of process models. Therefore, the PMCF describes an Evaluation
Theory Tree based on the Communication Theory as well as the Conceptual
Modeling Quality Framework and considers a total of 96 quality metrics in order
to quantify process model comprehension. Furthermore, the PMCF was evaluated in
a survey with 131 participants and has been implemented as well as applied
successfully in a practical case study including 33 participants. To conclude,
the PMCF allows for the identification of pitfalls and provides related
information about how to assist process modelers as well as readers in order to
foster and enable a proper comprehension of process models.Comment: 16 pages, 5 Figures, 1 Table, additional materials in appendi
Adapting modeling environments to domain specific interactions
Software tools are being used by experts in a variety of domains. There are numerous
software modeling environments tailored to a specific domain expertise. However, there is no
consistent approach to generically synthesize a product line of such modeling environments
that also take into account the user interaction and experience adapted to the domain. The
focus of my thesis is the proposal of a solution to explicitly model user interfaces and interaction
of modeling environments so that they can be tailored to the habits and preferences
of domain experts. We extend current model-driven engineering techniques that synthesize
graphical modeling environments to also take interaction models into account. The formal
semantics of our language framework is based on statecharts. We define a development process
for generating such modeling environments to maximize reuse through a novel statechart
refinement technique.Les outils logiciels sont utilisés par des experts dans une variété de domaines. Il existe de nombreux environnements de modélisation logicielle adaptés á une expertise spécifique. Cependant, il n’existe pas d’approche cohérente pour synthétiser génériquement une ligne de produits de tels environnements de modélisation qui prennent également en compte l’interaction et l’expérience utilisateur adaptées au domaine. L’objectif de ma thése est la proposition d’une solution pour modéliser explicitement les interfaces utilisateur et l’interaction des environnements de modélisation afin qu’ils puissent étre adaptés aux habitudes et aux préférences des experts du domaine. Nous étendons les techniques d’ingénierie actuelles pilotées par un modéle qui synthétisent des environnements de modélisation graphique pour prendre également en compte les modèles d’interaction. La sémantique formelle de notre cadre linguistique est basée sur des statecharts. Nous définissons un processus de développement pour générer de tels environnements de modélisation afin de maximiser la réutilisation à travers une nouveau technique de raffinement de statecharts
A semi-automated BPMN-based framework for detecting conflicts between security, data-minimization, and fairness requirements
Requirements are inherently prone to conflicts. Security, data-minimization, and fairness requirements are no exception. Importantly, undetected conflicts between such requirements can lead to severe effects, including privacy infringement and legal sanctions. Detecting conflicts between security, data-minimization, and fairness requirements is a challenging task, as such conflicts are context-specific and their detection requires a thorough understanding of the underlying business processes. For example, a process may require anonymous execution of a task that writes data into a secure data storage, where the identity of the writer is needed for the purpose of accountability. Moreover, conflicts not arise from trade-offs between requirements elicited from the stakeholders, but also from misinterpretation of elicited requirements while implementing them in business processes, leading to a non-alignment between the data subjects’ requirements and their specifications. Both types of conflicts are substantial challenges for conflict detection. To address these challenges, we propose a BPMN-based framework that supports: (i) the design of business processes considering security, data-minimization and fairness requirements, (ii) the encoding of such requirements as reusable, domain-specific patterns, (iii) the checking of alignment between the encoded requirements and annotated BPMN models based on these patterns, and (iv) the detection of conflicts between the specified requirements in the BPMN models based on a catalog of domain-independent anti-patterns. The security requirements were reused from SecBPMN2, a security-oriented BPMN 2.0 extension, while the fairness and data-minimization parts are new. For formulating our patterns and anti-patterns, we extended a graphical query language called SecBPMN2-Q. We report on the feasibility and the usability of our approach based on a case study featuring a healthcare management system, and an experimental user study. \ua9 2020, The Author(s)
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