Aligning business processes and work practices

Current business process modeling methodologies offer little guidance regarding how to keep business process models aligned with their actual execution. This paper describes how to achieve this goal by uncovering and supervising business process models in connection with work practices using BAM. BAM is a methodology for business process modeling, supervision and improvement that works at two dimensions; the dimension of processes and the dimension of work practices. The business modeling component of BAM is illustrated with a case study in an organizational setting

Business process and practice alignment meta-model

Business Process Modelling (BPM) is one of the most important phases of information system design. Business Process meta-models allow capturing informational and behavioural aspects of business processes. Unfortunately, standard business process meta-modelling approaches, such as the Business Process Model and Notation (BPMN) Meta-model, Quality-Oriented Business Process Meta-Model (QOBPM) and Transactional Meta-Model for Business Process (TMBP) focus just on process description, providing different business process models. According to these meta-modelling approaches, it is not possible to compare and identify related daily practices in order to improve business process models. This lack of information recognizes that further research in Business Process (BP) meta-model is needed to reflect the evolution/change on software processes. Considering this limitation in BP meta-modelling, this paper presents a comparative study of the most recognized business process meta-models approaches and introduces a new BP meta-model designed by Business Process and Practice Alignment Meta-model (BPPAMeta-model). Our intention is to present observed problems in existing approaches and propose a business process meta-model that addresses features related to the alignment between daily work practices and business process descriptions. (C) 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V

Projeto transversal em Engenharia Informática: continuidade nas unidades curriculares

O projeto transversal a várias unidades curriculares (UCs) constitui uma metodologia de ensino inovadora em qualquer sistema de ensino. O projeto mencionado neste trabalho consiste na construção de uma aplicação informática para organizações reais, indo além da dinâmica da sala de aula e exigindo a interação com o meio exterior. Este documento descreve o projeto transversal a quatro Unidades Curriculares do primeiro ciclo em Engenharia Informática. Uma vez que se pretende analisar a importância deste tipo de metodologia de trabalho, apresentamos estatísticas descritivas resultantes de questionários feitos aos alunos.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Towards a maturity model for higher education institutions

The adoption of business process improvement strategies is currently a concern of most organizations. The quest for the benefits of this improvement on resource optimization and the responsiveness of the organizations has raised several proposals for process improvement methodologies. These approaches differ both in the principles that support them, and in the specific area to which they are intended. However, proposals and results of scientific research on process improvement in higher education institutions, extremely complex and unique organizations, are still scarce. This research project aims to propose an extension to a business process maturity model for this particular type of organizations

Collaborative methods for business process discovery

Information flows across the organization are complex and procedures employed to understand, share and control organizational knowledge and experiences should be properly supported by collaborative environments. Nevertheless, few collaborative methodologies had been proposed to describe and evolve business processes. Existing tools don't provide the right methods for business processes discovery, modelling, monitoring and improvement. In the future, business processes models should be the result of cross-team and cross-departmental collaboration, with involved business people sharing their personal knowledge and formalizing it. This discussion paper focuses on collaborative process discovery methods, tools and the importance to integrate local information into coherent and sound process definitions. Business Alignment Methodology is a methodology that provides guidance about how organizational practices and knowledge are gathered to contribute for business process improvement against current Business Process Modelling approaches

Modelo de maturação de processos em Instituições de Ensino Superior

A adopção de estratégias de melhoria de processos de negócio é actualmente uma procupação de qualquer organização. Os benefícios desta melhoria na optimização dos recursos e na capacidade de resposta das organizações tem suscitado diversas propostas de metodologias de melhoria de processos. Estas diferem quer nos princípios que as suportam, quer na área específica a que se destinam. No entanto, são ainda escassas as propostas e os resultados de investigação científica acerca da melhoria de processos em instituições de ensino superior, extremamente complexas e com características únicas. Este projecto de investigação pretende propôr a extensão de um modelo de melhoria de processos para este tipo específico de organizações. Este trabalho está a ser desenvolvido no âmbito do projecto de Doutoramento em Engenharia Informática.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersioninfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Process and project alignment methodology: A case study based analysis

Process descriptions represent high-level plans and do not contain information necessary for concrete software development projects. Processes that are unrelated to daily practices or that are hardly mapped to project practices, cause misalignments between processes and projects. We argue that software processes should emerge and evolve collaboratively within an organization. With this propose, this article describes the ProPAM methodology and explores the details of its static view. We also present a case study to validate effectiveness of the proposed methodology. The aim of the case study was to analyse the effects of using ProPAM in a IT organization

A Systematic Literature Review of Legal Ontologies

This article analyzes the publications concerning the topic of legal ontology as supporting processes and activities of legal nature. A systematic review of the theme and the identification of the main existing studies are carried out. This review is developed throughout three tasks: contextualization of the theme from a legal perspective; systematic literature search; analysis and synthesis of the information obtained. From these studies the present work serves as a basis for the understanding and discussion of the possibilities of applying legal ontologies to support the activities of the legislative process in the parliamentary scope, and also the judicial process. Furthermore, it is intended in the future the definition of a legal domain-specific language. This article also presents the mapping of the publications of this theme with the existing studies and presents the respective critical and comparative analysis

Monitoring invasive macroalgae in southern Portugal: drivers and citizen science contribution

Under certain environmental and oceanographic conditions, macroalgae can overgrow and accumulate in massive quantities on beaches, causing serious ecological and economic impacts. To address this problem, a citizen science monitoring platform was created to determine the spatial and temporal distribution of macroalgae accumulations along the beaches of Algarve in southern Portugal, with the aim to assess the extent of beach-cast events and their relationship with abiotic factors. A Redundancy Analysis (RDA) and a permutational analysis of variance (PERMANOVA) were carried out to explore the relationship between macroalgae accumulation level and the abiotic variables: sea surface temperature, wind speed, wind direction, currents, maximum sea level, significant wave height, salinity, nitrate, ammonium, phosphate, precipitation and radiation. The citizen science campaign showed great participation, resulting in 404 submissions between July 2021 and September 2023. The campaign revealed that three species of macroalgae accumulated on the beaches of Algarve, Ulva sp. (with the presence of Ectocarpales and Dyctiotales) along the sandy eastern coast, and the invasive species Asparagopsis armata and Rugulopteryx okamurae in the rocky central and western beaches, respectively. The accumulations of R. okamurae increased from 2021 to 2023, were registered throughout the year and were more abundant than those of Ulva sp. and A. armata, which were only observed in spring and summer. The highest levels of R. okamurae beach-cast depositions were related to strong wave conditions, and high sea surface temperature and salinity. The accumulation of Ulva sp. was related to high sea surface temperature and salinity whereas A. armata was also correlated with winds parallel to the shore (NW-W). PERMANOVA analysis revealed that sea surface temperature and wave conditions had a significant effect on the overall abundance of macroalgae beach-cast accumulations. Overall, our citizen science campaign effectively involved the public, leading to the collection of important data on monitoring macroalgae accumulations. Through these findings, we were able to pinpoint the environmental, atmospheric, and hydrodynamic factors that contribute to their development, movement, and buildup along the Algarve coastlines.NUTRISAFE project (AAC No. 41/ALG/2020—Project No. 072583—NUTRISAFE); LA/P/0101/2020info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Dying in the emergency service: nurses’ attitudes before and after the first critical period of COVID-19

Background: Death is an increasingly frequent event in hospitals, and nurses are the health professionals who live with this reality the most. The pandemic caused by COVID-19 made this event more present, showing that nurses’ attitudes toward death may influence the care provided to people at the end of life. The objective of this study was to analyze the attitudes of nurses in the emergency service toward death, before and after the first critical period of the pandemic by COVID-19 in Portugal. Methods: A quantitative, comparative, and cross-sectional study was conducted in a hospital in Northern Portugal at 2 different moments: the first in February 2018 and the second in May 2020, after the first critical period of the pandemic by COVID-19. In both moments, data were collected using a self-completion questionnaire, which included the Death Attitude Profile Assessment Scale. Results: The attitudes fear, avoidance, closeness, and escape did not show significant differences. In neutral/neutral acceptance, differences were found between the first and second moments of data collection (P=.01), with a lower mean after the critical period of the pandemic. Conclusions: The results obtained in 2018 and 2020 showed slight changes in attitudes toward death. The need to invest in the training and preparation of nurses who deal directly with death and the dying process was evident. Nurse managers should promote spaces for reflection and team training on death, aiming to reduce the professionals’ suffering and anxiety.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio