A Method for Information Systems Development According to SOA

While service-oriented architecture (SOA) is gaining momentum in research and industry, we believe the field of methods for designing information systems according to SOA still leaves room for improvement. Nevertheless, the implementation of SOA design principles demands a methodical approach. All existing methods have shortcomings of some kind, but also propose some useful concepts. In this paper, the SOA method (SOAM) is presented. It is based on an understanding of the useful concepts from existing methods and puts them together with new ideas that address the key shortcomings. It has been tested in practice at Vattenfall Europe, one of the largest European energy and heat providers and three other companies. The evaluation has shown that SOAM is well-defined, supports the design of information systems according to the SOA design principles and can be applied in practice

Improving Software Flexibility for Business Process Changes

In times of continuous change, companies need to adjust their business processes to gain sustainable competitive advantage. Resulting changes in the company’s IT currently require the involvement of developers from departments that are mostly not aligned with the business. These changes often result in high transaction and labor costs. The article presents a platform-based method to adjust business processes with the aim of increasing both efficiency and flexibility compared to current approaches. The core of our work is an evaluation against traditional component-based software development using a sound simulation model. Three real-world scenarios of business process change show that – despite a slight increase in transaction costs – our suggested method decreases labor costs while increasing operational flexibility

Proposal for Components of Method Design Theories - Increasing the Utility of Method Design Artefacts

Gregor and Jones have proposed components for design theories, building on theory concepts from behavioural sciences and prior publications. Their design theory structure addresses IT artefacts in general, not specific to any type, such as constructs, models, methods or instantiations. Their work is an important contribution to the academic discussion of design theories. The authors are building on this and believe that specialised design theory structures for different types of artefacts further increases utility, usability and acceptance of the components for both academia and practise. They have analysed each of the components published by Gregor and Jones and proposed refinements specific to method design artefacts wherever applicable. For each component, they derive evaluation criteria and present examples of method publications fulfilling the criteria. They argue that by presenting method design theories according to this structure the contribution of method design artefacts to the body of knowledge will increase

Preparations for the Evaluation of a Speech Recognition System in Neonatology (U2)

Background: before using a speech recognition system for the neonatal documentation, the underlying neonatal information has to be specified and structured. Up to now, the pre-structuring the first comprehensive examination of newborn (U2) and the respective data set entries has not been described in literature, yet. The common booklet for the documentation of the German U2 does not contain all examinations required nor does it show the choice of all respective finding statements. Objectives: to set up a documentation standard for the U2 distinguishing the most important diseases/disorders at a limited level of detailing. Methods: the finding scheme of the U2 has been specified based on the German national recommendation for the U2. Here, the U2 is the first exhaustive examination of the newborn. Due to a lack of detailed descriptions, the U2 has been formalized and arranged in cooperation with experienced medical experts, which carry out the U2 in daily routine. Results: if all possible finding statements are presented in a hierarchical structure, – even with a small font size – it would cover more than 20 pages. Hence, a more condensed structure has been set up for presentation. If the general practitioner (GP) is to see (a) the finding statements necessary but (b) no more, additional rules can be set up for the masking of finding statements excluded by the results of the prior investigation. Conclusions: the proposed structure for neonatal documentation serves as a basis for statistical analysis. On its basis, investigation can be carried out about (a) problems during the individual examination, (b) problem with the documentation and (c) the benefits of automated speech recognition systems

VERBESSERUNG DER WIRKSAMKEIT DES SOA-DESIGN DURCH REFERENZMODELLE

Dieser Beitrag untersucht die Anwendung von industriespezifischen Referenzmodellen im Entwurfsprozess für Serviceorientierte Architekturen (SOA). Während sowohl Methoden der Modellwiederverwendung, als auch verschiedene Qualitätsframeworks für die Bewertung von Referenzmodellen vorgeschlagen wurden, sind Untersuchungen, die einen konkreten Ansatz der Modellwiederverwendung im SOA-Entwurf vorstellen und mittels Qualitätskriterien evaluieren, nicht bekannt. Wir schlagen ein erweitertes Qualitätsmodell für die Evaluierung der Referenzmodellanwendung im SOA-Entwurf vor und wenden es auf eine existierende Methode an, deren integrativer Bestandteil die Wiederverwendung von Referenzmodellen ist. Es wurde ein Laborexperiment durchgeführt, welches qualitative und zeitliche Vorteile des Referenzmodelleinsatzes zeigt

Blogs als neue Forschungskultur?

Soeben ist ein neues Internetangebot für Blogs in den (deutschen) Sozialwissenschaften gestartet: de.hypotheses.org ist er deutsche Ableger des ungemein erfolgreichen hypotheses.org aus Frankreich, welches die dortige Bloglandschaft im wissenschaftlichen Bereich bündelt. Zum Start hatte das Deutsche Historische Institut Paris (DHIP) zu einer Tagung geladen, auf der viele Aspekte des wissenschaftlichen Bloggens thematisiert wurden..

Begegnen Sie dem Afghanen freundlich…

… dann wird das schon mit der zivil-militärischen Zusammenarbeit. Dieser gut gemeinte Ratschlag öffnete das Feld für den gestrigen Themenabend der ARD zum Thema der Bundeswehr in Afghanistan. Mit “Auslandseinsatz” strahlte die Anstalt den ersten deutschen Fernsehfilm aus, “der den Krieg und den Einsatz in Afghanistan selbst zum Thema hat und auch dort spielt” – explizit keine Heimkehrergeschichte, wie die Pressemitteilung betonte, zur Abgrenzung von früheren eigenen Ausstrahlungen und wohl auch von Til Schweigers aktuellem Kinofilm. Gefolgt wurde die fiktionale Abhandlung von einer (extralangen?) Anne-Will-Sendung, in der unter anderem Verteidigungsminister de Maizière zu Gast war – ein interessantes Doppelformat von Fiktion und (Talkshow-)Realität, die immerhin von 3,7 bzw. 2,8 Millionen Menschen gesehen wurde..