Exploring the Dynamic Costs of Process-aware Information Systems through Simulation

Introducing process-aware information systems (PAIS) in enterprises (e.g., workflow management systems, case handling systems) is associated with high costs. Though cost evaluation has received considerable attention in software engineering for many years, it is difficult to apply existing evaluation approaches to PAIS. This difficulty particularly stems from the inability of these techniques to deal with the complex interplay of the many technological, organizational and project-driven factors which emerge in the context of PAIS engineering projects. In response to this problem this paper proposes an approach which utilizes simulation models for investigating costs related to PAIS engineering projects. We motivate the need for simulation, discuss the design and execution of simulation models, and give an illustrating example

Simulation Models for Analyzing the Dynamic Costs of Process-aware Information Systems

Introducing process-aware information systems (PAIS) in enterprises (e.g., workflow management systems, case handling systems) is associated with high costs. Though cost estimation has received considerable attention in software engineering for many years, it is difficult to apply existing approaches to PAIS. This difficulty particularly stems from the inability of existing estimation techniques to deal with the complex interplay of the many technological, organizational and project-driven factors which emerge in the context of PAIS. In response to this problem, this paper proposes an approach which utilizes simulation models for investigating the dynamic costs of PAIS engineering projects. We motivate the need for simulation, discuss the development and execution of simulation models, and give an illustrating example. The present work has been accomplished in the EcoPOST project, which deals with the development of a comprehensive evaluation framework for analyzing PAIS engineering projects from a value-based perspective

A Survey on Evaluation Factors for Business Process Management Technology

Estimating the value of business process management (BPM) technology is a difficult task to accomplish. Computerized business processes have a strong impact on an organization, and BPM projects have a long-term cost amortization. To systematically analyze BPM technology from an economic-driven perspective, we are currently developing an evaluation framework in the EcoPOST project. In order to empirically validate the relevance of assumed evaluation factors (e.g., process knowledge, business process redesign, end user fears, and communication) we have conducted an online survey among 70 BPM experts from more than 50 industrial and academic organizations. This paper summarizes the results of this survey. Our results help both researchers and practitioners to better understand the evaluation factors that determine the value of BPM technology

A Survey on Economic-driven Evaluations of Information Technology

The economic-driven evaluation of information technology (IT) has become an important instrument in the management of IT projects. Numerous approaches have been developed to quantify the costs of an IT investment and its assumed profit, to evaluate its impact on business process performance, and to analyze the role of IT regarding the achievement of enterprise objectives. This paper discusses approaches for evaluating IT from an economic-driven perspective. Our comparison is based on a framework distinguishing between classification criteria and evaluation criteria. The former allow for the categorization of evaluation approaches based on their similarities and differences. The latter, by contrast, represent attributes that allow to evaluate the discussed approaches. Finally, we give an example of a typical economic-driven IT evaluation

Investigating Implemented Process Design: A Case Study on the Impact of Process-aware Information Systems on Core Job Dimensions

Adequate process design particularly means that a process fulfills its stakeholders’ expectations. However, when designing process-aware information systems (PAIS), one stakeholder and his expectations are often neglected: the end user. Frequently, this results in end user fears, which, in turn, lead to emotional resistance and a lack of user support during process and information system design. In order to overcome this vicious circle it becomes necessary to better understand the impact of operationalized process design on the end users’ work profile. This paper presents the results of a case study at two Dutch companies.We investigate in which way employees perceive the impact of a newly introduced PAIS based on workflow management technology with respect to five job dimensions: skill variety, task identity, task significance, autonomy, and feedback from the job

Unleashing the Effectiveness of Process-oriented Information Systems: Problem Analysis, Critical Success Factors, Implications

Process-oriented information systems (IS) aim at the computerized support of business processes. So far, contemporary IS have often fail to meet this goal. To better understand this drawback, to systematically identify its rationales, and to derive critical success factors for business process support, we conducted three empirical studies: an exploratory case study in the automotive domain, an online survey among 79 IT professionals, and another online survey among 70 business process management (BPM) experts. This paper summarizes the findings of these studies, puts them in relation with each other, and uses them to show that "process-orientation" is scarce and "process-awareness" is needed in IS engineering

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

Usability-Metriken als Nachweis der Wirtschaftlichkeit von Verbesserungen der Mensch-Maschine-Schnittstelle

Die Gestaltung von Benutzerschnittstellen ist ausschlaggebend für die Akzeptanz eines Software-Systems. Methoden des Usability Engineering zielen auf die Entwicklung von Systemen mit möglichst hoher ergonomischer Güte sowie aufgabengerechter Funktionalität. Usability-Metriken werden im Projekt-Controlling dazu benutzt, um zu bewerten, inwieweit die Anwendung von Methoden des Usability Engineering in existierenden Entwicklungsprozessen zu einer verbesserten Bedieneffizienz und Nutzerakzeptanz führt. Der wirtschaftliche Fokus liegt - sofern solche Aspekte überhaupt in die Motivation zur Erhebung von Usability-Metriken einfließen - oftmals nur auf einem einzigen, monetär erfassbaren Faktor, wie zum Beispiel dem Return on Investment (RoI). Dagegen fehlt bisher eine grundlegendere Motivation zur Verdeutlichung der Korrelation zwischen den Methoden des Usability Engineering und der gesamtwirtschaftlichen Perspektive eines Softwareprojekts. Dieser Beitrag soll die Verknüpfung zwischen der Usability und Wirtschaftlichkeit eines Systems aufzeigen und motivieren. Die geeignete Methodik der Wahl für diese Aufgabe sind Usability-Metriken

Aktuelles Schlagwort: Business Process Intelligence

In jüngerer Vergangenheit rückt vermehrt die Erfassung und Analyse von Prozessechtdaten (z.B. zum Start und Ende von Prozessaktivitäten) in den Blickpunkt. Solche Daten werden von den meisten prozessorientierten Informationssystemen geliefert. Das Schlagwort Business Process Intelligence (BPI) subsumiert existierende Konzepte, Anwendungen und Werkzeuge für die Erfassung und Auswertung von Prozessdaten. Anwendungsbeispiele sind die aggregierte Auswertung von Daten über einer Kollektion von Prozessinstanzen (z.B. mittlere Prozessdurchlaufzeit oder durchschnittliche Ressourcenallokation) oder die automatische Ableitung von Prozessmodellen aus den Protokolldaten zu abgeschlossenen Prozessausführungen. Aus Informatiksicht gilt es, geeignete Rahmenbedingungen zur Unterstützung entsprechender Anwendungsszenarien zu schaffen. Wichtige Aspekte, die in diesem Beitrag in einer BPI-Referenzarchitektur eingeordnet werden, betreffen die Datenintegration, das Prozess-Monitoring und die Prozessvisualisierung

Federated Learning Based Proactive Content Caching in Edge Computing

This is the author accepted manuscript. the final version is available from IEEE via the DOI in this recordContent caching is a promising approach in edge computing to cope with the explosive growth of mobile data on 5G networks, where contents are typically placed on local caches for fast and repetitive data access. Due to the capacity limit of caches, it is essential to predict the popularity of files and cache those popular ones. However, the fluctuated popularity of files makes the prediction a highly challenging task. To tackle this challenge, many recent works propose learning based approaches which gather the users' data centrally for training, but they bring a significant issue: users may not trust the central server and thus hesitate to upload their private data. In order to address this issue, we propose a Federated learning based Proactive Content Caching (FPCC) scheme, which does not require to gather users' data centrally for training. The FPCC is based on a hierarchical architecture in which the server aggregates the users' updates using federated averaging, and each user performs training on its local data using hybrid filtering on stacked autoencoders. The experimental results demonstrate that, without gathering user's private data, our scheme still outperforms other learning-based caching algorithms such as m-epsilon-greedy and Thompson sampling in terms of cache efficiency.Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC)National Key Research and Development Program of ChinaNational Natural Science Foundation of ChinaEuropean Union Seventh Framework Programm