Calculation of Delay Times for Workflows with Fixed-Date Constraints

Abstract Workflow participants are faced with the problem to select one out many work items in their worklist. The decision to execute one specific work item implicitly postpones the execution of all other items. This may lead to disproportionately increased execution durations of the associated workflows, especially if fixed-date constraints are defined on succeeding tasks. In this paper we show how to utilize a workflows control structure augmented with information about timing behavior to calculate what delay to expect when the execution of a work item is postponed to certain dates. This information can be used to assist the participant in order to increase the workflow throughput and avoid time-related escalations

Flexible Process Support for Student Project Management

Student projects m higher education are used to help students prepare themselves for meeting the challenges they face in real world projects. However, the dynamic nature of a project had caused it to have ill-defined tasks during the planning process. The use of emails, face-to-face meetings and project reports to manage student projects do not appear efficient. The implementation of X CHIPS (a cooperative hypermedia system with flexible process support) in the EXTERNAL project has suggested that this system is able to provide efficient project management. This dissertation aims to answer the research question: "How a cooperative hypermedia based flexible process support approach is able to support project supervisors and students in managing student project". A case study approach has been adopted to investigate this phenomenon. In order to provide compelling evidence to support the answer to our research question, data from different sources was collected. In addition, triangulation was used to increase the reliability of the study. Our findings from the case study demonstrated that the cooperative hypermedia based flexible process support approach can support project supervisors and students to create, monitor and adapt project plans cooperatively. Project supervisors and students can identify emerging problems from the project plan and discuss issues in project meetings. Furthermore, this approach also supports meeting process modifications and unplanned meeting process. Project meetings between project supervisors and students are facilitated by synchronous and asynchronous cooperation. Therefore, this approach provides flexible ways of solving emergent problems in a timely manner. No previous studies on using cooperative hypermedia based flexible process support in supporting student project management have been found. Therefore, this study can be taken as a pilot study that is able to provide invaluable knowledge to researchers who are interested in this field of study

Specification and Management of Complex Resources in a Process Environment

Business process management system have become very important in the last years. They have changed many different domains. One area where so far very little interaction with processes has taken place is in the specification and management of resources. The high importance that resources have in organizations and their direct influence on the execution of processes, show, however, that this is an ideal subject to bring into the business process world. This work shows how a model for the specification and management of complex resources in a process environment can be developed. It demonstrates what kind of requirement have to be met, both for the sake of correct representation of the resources themselves and for the sake of a functioning integration with the business processes. It shows how all aspects of the business processes have to be taken into account and what concepts are important in the different phases of the business process lifecycle. The impact that the integration of resources has on adaptive process management is presented. Similarly it is shown what business intelligence can achieve for resources. Finally, a working prototype for the integration of resources into the business process management system AristaFlow is shown

A Framework for Linking Projects and Project Management Methods

Software development processes such as the Waterfall process and Extreme Programming are project management methods (PMMs) which are well known and widely used. However, conventional project management (PM) lacks the process concepts expressed in PMMs, and the connection between PMMs and PM is not much explored in the literature. We present data models for PM and PMM, in a framework that can articulate the PM-to-PMM relationship, illustrating with simple examples. A java/XML implementation of this framework can create and then revise a "PMM aware" project, conforming to a specified PMM. In terms of the framework, we describe a simple project data visualization and associated method that can be used to synthesize a PMM for a project instance that was initially created without reference to any PMM

System design for periodic data production management

This research project introduces a new type of information system, the periodic data production management system, and proposes several innovative system design concepts for this application area. Periodic data production systems are common in the information industry for the production of information. These systems process large quantities of data in order to produce statistical reports in predefined intervals. The workflow of such a system is typically distributed world-wide and consists of several semi-computerized production steps which transform data packages. For example, market research companies apply these systems in order to sell marketing information over specified timelines. production of information. These systems process large quantities of data in order to produce statistical reports in predefined intervals. The workflow of such a system is typically distributed world-wide and consists of several semi-computerized production steps which transform data packages. For example, market research companies apply these systems in order to sell marketing information over specified timelines. There has been identified a lack of concepts for IT-aided management in this area. This thesis clearly defines the complex requirements of periodic data production management systems. It is shown that these systems can be defines as IT-support for planning, monitoring and controlling periodic data production processes. Their significant advantages are that information industry will be enabled to increase production performance, and to ease (and speed up) the identification of the production progress as well as the achievable optimisation potential in order to control rationalisation goals. In addition, this thesis provides solutions for he generic problem how to introduce such a management system on top of an unchangeable periodic data production system. Two promising system designs for periodic data production management are derived, analysed and compared in order to gain knowledge about appropriate concepts and this application area. Production planning systems are the metaphor models used for the so-called closely coupled approach. The metaphor model for the loosely coupled approach is project management. The latter approach is prototyped as an application in the market research industry and used as case study. Evaluation results are real-world experiences which demonstrate the extraordinary efficiency of systems based on the loosely coupled approach. Special is a scenario-based evaluation that accurately demonstrates the many improvements achievable with this approach. Main results are that production planning and process quality can vitally be improved. Finally, among other propositions, it is suggested to concentrate future work on the development of product lines for periodic data production management systems in order to increase their reuse

Workflow-Management für Produktentwicklungsprozesse

Workflow-Management-Systeme unterstützen die elektronische Abwicklung von Arbeitsprozessen, sogenannten Workflows. Heutige Systeme erzwingen meist die starre Ausführung vormodellierter Workflows, was ihre praktische Tauglichkeit auf Anwendungsgebiete mit starren Prozessen beschränkt. In vielen Anwendungsbereichen sind Arbeitsprozesse jedoch meist nur semi-strukturiert. Dieses Merkmal ist aufgrund kreativer Teilaufgaben auch typisch für alle Produktentwicklungsprozesse, für die in dieser Arbeit adäquate Modellierungs- und Ausführungskonzepte vorgestellt werden. Diese Konzepte wurden im WEP-Workflow-Management-Systems (WEP = Workflow Management for Engineering Processes) zur Demonstration der Machbarkeit und des praktischen Nutzens prototypisch implementiert

Unterstützung von Periodizität in Informationssystemen

In vielen Anwendungsgebieten kommt zunehmend der Wunsch auf, temporale Aspekte systemseitig zu unterstützen. Ein solches Gebiet ist die Unterstützung von Geschäftsprozessen durch prozessorientierte Informationssysteme. Eine große Herausforderung bildet hier die adäquate Handhabung von Geschäftsprozessen, die aus regelmäßig (periodisch) wiederkehrenden elementaren Aktivitäten oder Abfolgen von Aktivitäten bestehen. Die systemseitige Unterstützung solcher periodischen Prozesse bzw. periodischen Spezifikationen (Periodizität) weist Anforderungen auf, die weit über die temporalen Fähigkeiten heutiger Informationssysteme hinausgehen. Gegenstand dieser Arbeit ist die Entwicklung eines ganzheitlichen Ansatzes zur integrierten Unterstützung von Periodizität in (prozessorientierten) Informationssystemen. Das zentrale Anliegen ist hierbei, Konzepte und Modelle zu entwickeln, die als Basistechnologien zur Unterstützung periodischer Zusammenhänge in unternehmensweiten (prozessorientierten) Informationssystemen (auch bei tausenden von Benutzern und aktiven Prozess-Instanzen), wesentlich sein werden. In dieser Arbeit wird mit dem zyklenorientierten Modell ein logisches (Meta-) Zeitmodell eingeführt, das eine ausdrucksstarke und anwenderorientierte Beschreibung von komplexen periodischen Spezifikationen ermöglicht. Neben einfachen (äquidistanten) periodischen Angaben können auch komplexe (nichtäquidistante) periodische Angaben beschrieben werden. Des Weiteren wird mit dem HSP-Baum eine kompakte und berechenbare Repräsentationsform des (theoretischen) zyklenorientierten Modells vorgestellt. Der HSP-Baum bildet mit seiner präzisen formalen Syntax und Semantik die Grundlage dafür, dass semantisch falsche, inkonsistente oder widersprüchliche Angaben erkannt und korrigiert werden können. Zur Steigerung der temporalen Fähigkeiten heutiger Informationssysteme ist eine operationale Unterstützung unumgänglich, die einen effizienten Umgang mit periodischen Spezifikationen ermöglicht. Mit der in dieser Arbeit entwickelten Bitletrepräsentation wird ein entsprechender Lösungsansatz vorgestellt. Die Bitletrepräsentation begegnet dem Hauptproblem bestehender Realisierungsverfahren, das zu einem starken Anstieg sowohl des operationalen Aufwands als auch des Repräsentationsumfangs führte. Darüber hinaus kann die Bitletrepräsentation als eine Form der (verlustfreien) Komprimierung von Wiederholungsmustern verstanden werden, was zu äußerst kompakten Repräsentationen periodischer Spezifikationen führen kann. Insgesamt erlauben die entwickelten Lösungen und Algorithmen eine durchgängige Unterstützung periodischer Zusammenhänge. Auf Basis prototypischer Realisierungen können wir ebenfalls zeigen, dass die Skalierbarkeit und Effizienz der Lösungen auch bei großem Datenvolumen gewährleistet wird