On Engineering Support for Business Process Modelling and Redesign

Currently, there is an enormous (research) interest in business process redesign (BPR). Several management-oriented approaches have been proposed showing how to make BPR work. However, detailed descriptions of empirical experience are few. Consistent engineering methodologies to aid and guide a BPR-practitioner are currently emerging. Often, these methodologies are claimed to be developed for business process modelling, but stem directly from information system design cultures. We consider an engineering methodology for BPR to consist of modelling concepts, their representation, computerized tools and methods, and pragmatic skills and guidelines for off-line modelling, communicating, analyzing, (re)designing\ud business processes. The modelling concepts form the architectural basis of such an engineering methodology. Therefore, the choice, understanding and precise definition of these concepts determine the productivity and effectiveness of modelling tasks within a BPR project. The\ud current paper contributes to engineering support for BPR. We work out general issues that play a role in the development of engineering support for BPR. Furthermore, we introduce an architectural framework for business process modelling and redesign. This framework consists of a coherent set of modelling concepts and techniques on how to use them. The framework enables the modelling of both the structural and dynamic characteristics of business processes. We illustrate its applicability by modelling a case from service industry. Moreover, the architectural framework supports abstraction and refinement techniques. The use of these techniques for a BPR trajectory are discussed

The role of the service concept in model-driven applications development

This paper identifies two paradigms that have influenced the design of distributed applications: the middleware-centred and the protocol-centred paradigm, and proposes a combined use of these two paradigms. This combined use incorporates major benefits from both paradigms: the ability to reuse middleware infrastructures and the ability to treat distributed coordination aspects as a separate object of design through the use of the service concept. A careful consideration of the service concept, and its recursive application, allows us to define an appropriate and precise notion of platform-independence that suits the needs of model-driven middleware application development

Capturing Business Strategy and Value in Enterprise Architecture to Support Portfolio Valuation

This paper investigates and enhances the suitability of the Archi Mate enterprise architecture modeling language to support the modeling of business strategy concepts and architecture-based approaches to IT portfolio valuation. It gives an overview of existing strategy and valuation concepts and methods in the literature and motivates the need for enterprise architecture and business requirements modeling to capture these aspects as well. This overview results in the identification of strategy and value related concepts, such as value, risks, resources, capabilities, competencies and constraints. The paper provides an analysis of the extent to which Archi Mate may support some of the above-mentioned concepts and extends it with the missing concepts. The proposed language extension is formalized in terms of a met model fragment, which is aligned with the Archi Mate metamodel. The approach is also illustrated by means of an application portfolio consolidation case study in which we demonstrate how a constrained optimization valuation method can be applied to architecture models enhanced with the new concept

Methodological support for service-oriented design with ISDL

Currently, service-oriented computing is mainly technology-driven. Most developments focus on the technology that enables enterprises to describe, publish and compose application services, and to communicate with applications of other enterprises according to their service descriptions. In this paper, we argue that this technology should be complented with modelling languages, design methods and techniques supporting <i>service-oriented design</i>. We consider service-oriented design as the process of designing application support for business processes, using the service-oriented paradigm. We assume that service-oriented computing technology is used to implent application support. The paper presents two main contributions to the area of service-oriented design. First, a systatic service-oriented design approach is presented, identifying generic design milestones and a method for assessing the conformance between application designs at related abstraction levels. Second, a conceptual model for service-oriented design is presented that provides a common and precise understanding of the terminology used in service-oriented design. The ISDL modelling language is introduced to express service-oriented designs, based on this conceptual model. The paper includes an elaborate example to illustrate our ideas

Consistency in multi-viewpoint design of enterprise information systems

Different stakeholders in the design of an enterprise information system have their own view on that design. To help produce a coherent design this paper presents a framework that aids in specifying relations and consistency rules between such views. The contribution of our framework is that it provides a collection of basic concepts. These basic concepts aid in relating viewpoints by providing: (i) a common terminology that helps stakeholders to understand each others concepts; and (ii) re-usable consistency rules. We show that our framework can be applied, by performing a case study in which we specify the relations and consistency rules between three RM-ODP viewpoints

An interconnection architecture for micropayment systems

In the next years the market for low value online content, like music and videos, is expected to grow substantially. To allow �pay-per-use� of such content, micropayment systems are expected to play an important role. Since there are already many competing micropayment systems on the market, customers and merchants are forced to use multiple systems. To overcome the problems associated with using multiple systems, the research presented in this paper builds upon the idea of payment gateways that interconnect these systems. We introduce a generally applicable interconnection method such that the interconnection of these systems can be easily realized in a systematic way. This approach consists of (de)enhancing the existing micropayment services towards a uniform service level before the interconnection takes place. This paper presents the main functional characteristics\ud of existing payment systems, and proposes modification strategies for existing micropayment systems to provide the uniform payment service. The modifications are required before the interconnection can take place

ArchiMate 2.0 Specification

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Computernetwerken

Dit hoofdstuk behandelt belangrijke begrippen voor het beschrijven, ontwerpen en gebruiken van computernetwerken, en geeft een beknopte beschijving van de algemene functies van een computernetwerk. Computernetwerkfuncties worden onderverdeeld in vier lagen, de applicatielaag, transportlaag, netwerklaag en subnetwerklaag, waarbij functies in een bepaalde laag nodig zijn om diensten te kunnen leveren aan een bovenliggende laag (of aan de eindgebruikers) onder gebruikmaking van de diensten van een onderliggende laag (of van een fysiek medium). Tenslotte introduceert dit hoofdstuk een aantal laagdoorsnijdende thema's, namelijk multimedia communicatie, draadloze communicatie en mobiele toepassingen, netwerkbeveiliging en operationeel netwerkbeheer