Valuable Business Knowledge Asset Discovery by Processing Unstructured Data.

Modern organizations are challenged to enact a digital transformation and improve their competitiveness while contributing to the ninth Sustainable Development Goal (SGD), “Build resilient infrastructure, promote sustainable industrialization and foster innovation”. The discovery of hidden process data’s knowledge assets may help to digitalize processes. Working on a valuable knowledge asset discovery process, we found a major challenge in that organizational data and knowledge are likely to be unstructured and undigitized, constraining the power of today’s process mining methodologies (PMM). Whereas it has been proved in digitally mature companies, the scope of PMM becomes wider with the complement proposed in this paper, embracing organizations in the process of improving their digital maturity based on available data. We propose the C4PM method, which integrates agile principles, systems thinking and natural language processing techniques to analyze the behavioral patterns of organizational semi-structured or unstructured data from a holistic perspective to discover valuable hidden information and uncover the related knowledge assets aligned with the organization strategic or business goals. Those assets are the key to pointing out potential processes susceptible to be handled using PMM, empowering a sustainable organizational digital transformation. A case study analysis from a dataset containing information on employees’ emails in a multinational company was conducted.post-print5352 K

An instance-based-learning simulation model to predict knowledge assets evolution involved in potential digital transformation projects.

Software engineering professionals must consider the appropriate technological solutions to meet their client’s needs and the organisational impact. The decision to implement a solution is not explicitly based on how it empowers the knowledge assets. Organisational knowledge assets are the foundation of the knowledge economy and a key element in evaluating the health of an organisation. This paper provides software engineers with a simulation model which illustrates the decision-making process for the implementation of technological solutions based on an evaluation of their client’s knowledge assets and how such assets impact and are impacted by the deployment of a solution. We use an agent-based approach and implement an instance-based learning model (a cognitive approach) to represent scenarios for experience-based decisions. 11 case studies were used to train the prediction engine and validate the usefulness of the model in generating scenarios and nurturing decision-making and user experiences.pre-print1537 K

Simulación del proceso de desarrollo de software: una aproximación con Dinámica de Sistemas y el Método de Larman

The implementation of any software development process involves the consumption of critical resources. Software engineers cannot experiment with different development processes before starting them in real projects, due to the time that would entail and the amount of elements that are involved, so it is vital to have tools that allow the pre-visualization of the results of executing the software development process and how the environmental variables affect it, thus being able to anticipate under what conditions the software development process will be deployed. This paper presents the modelling and simulation of a software development process using System Dynamics (SD), which allows the graphical representation of the elements intervening in the software process, and the incorporation of as many relevant elements as possible. As a software costs estimation reference, the COCOMO estimation model was used; which beyond being reliable has a theoretical-practical foundation. As an ideal, and real, software process system, the Craig Larman Software Process model was chosen, also known as the Larman Method. The simulation model developed here, allows one to make some initial estimation of the software process and its elements’ behavior in the course of the simulation time. This is possible thanks to the observation and study of the system’s state variables, empowering one to discern about the effect of changes in the parameters on the general process, hence, carrying out relevant and interesting scenario studies. This model becomes a tool for supporting Software Project Management teams and enterprises whose business care on Technological Projects Management.Poner en marcha cualquier proyecto de software involucra el consumo de recursos críticos. El ingeniero de software no puede experimentar con procesos de desarrollo sin ponerlos en marcha en proyectos reales, debido al tiempo que ello conlleva y a los elementos implicados, de modo que es importante contar con herramientas para pre-visualizar el resultado de la ejecución del proceso y cómo las variables de entorno le afectan, buscando anticipar en qué condiciones se va a desplegar el proceso. Este artículo presenta el modelado y simulación de un proceso de desarrollo de software por medio del enfoque de la Dinámica de Sistemas (DS), que permite representar gráficamente los elementos intervinientes en el proceso e incorporar la cantidad relevante de parámetros involucrados. Se tomó como referencia el modelo de estimación de costes COCOMO, que cuenta con una fundamentación teórico-práctica que avala su fiabilidad. Para la construcción del modelo, la referencia de sistema real fue el proceso software de Craig Larman (Método de Larman). El modelo de simulación presentado permite hacer estimaciones iniciales del comportamiento del proceso software, y de los elementos que lo conforman, durante el transcurso de un tiempo de simulación configurable. Se analizan variables de estado del sistema, que permiten concluir sobre efectos de los parámetros en el comportamiento del sistema en general, y se lleva a cabo un estudio de escenarios. El modelo deriva en una herramienta de soporte a los equipos de gestión, y a las empresas que hacen de la Gestión de Proyectos Tecnológicos su negocio principal

Smart occupational health and safety for a digital era and its place in smart and sustainable cities.

As innovative technologies emerge, there is a need to evolve the environments in which these technologies are used. The trend has shifted from considering technology as a support service towards making it the means for transforming all complex systems. Smart cities focus their development on the use of technology to transform every aspect of society and embrace the complexity of these transformations towards something leading to the well-being and safety of people inhabiting these cities. Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) is an essential aspect to be considered in the design of a smart city and its digital ecosystems, however, it remains unconsidered in most smart city’s frameworks, despite the need for a specific space for smart OHS. This paper summarizes a 9-month process of generation of a value proposition for evolving the sector of OHS based on a value-map in whose creation several stakeholders have participated. They focused on identifying the products, the methods, the organizational structures and the technologies required to develop an updated, dynamic and robust prevention model focused on workers in smart and complex contexts, and to improve the organizations’ capability to guarantee safety even in the most changing, digital and disruptive settings. To assess the relevance and validity of this value-map, a study was carried out to match the set of its elements and its specific and conceptual products discovered, considering also the definition of the past needs and future trends of the sector that a set of renowned stakeholders and key opinion leaders (with mastery in OHS from several companies and industries) have recently defined for the decade of 2020. A prospective analysis of this match is presented, revealing that there is still an existing gap to be covered in the context of smart cities design: the explicit guarantee of safety for workers.post-print650 K

Digital transformation in organizational health and safety to mitigate Burnout Syndrome

In 2000, the World Health Organization (WHO) identified Burnout Syndrome as an occupational risk factor, affecting an estimated 10% of workers, resulting in lost productivity and increased costs due to sick leave. Some claim that Burnout Syndrome has reached epidemic proportions in workplaces around the world. While signs of burnout are not difficult to identify and palliate, its real impact is not easy to measure, generating a number of risks for companies from possible loss of human talent to decreased productivity and diminished quality of life. Given the complexity of Burnout Syndrome, it must be addressed in a creative, innovative and systematic way; traditional approaches cannot be expected to deliver different results. This paper describes the experience where an innovation challenge was launched to collect creative ideas to identify, prevent or mitigate Burnout Syndrome through the use of technological tools and software. The challenge was endowed with an economic award and its guidelines stated that the proposals must be both creative and feasible from an economic and organizational point of view. A total of twelve creative projects were submitted, including each of them, the analysis, design and management plans, to envision an idea that is feasible and with the appropriate budget, implemented. In this paper, we present a summary of these creative projects and how the IRSST (Instituto Regional de Seguridad y Salud en el Trabajo) experts and leaders in OHS in the Madrid Region (Spain) envision their potential impact on improving the OHS landscape