Catálogo de publicaciones - libros

The semantics of the OR-join in business process modeling languages like EPCs or YAWL have been discussed for a while. Still, the existing solutions suffer from at least one of two major problems. First, several formalizations depend upon restrictions of the EPC to a subset. Second, several approaches contradict the modeling intuition since the structuredness of the process does not guarantee soundness. In this paper, we present a novel semantical definition of EPCs that addresses these aspects yielding a formalization that is applicable for all EPCs and for which structuredness is a sufficient condition for soundness. Furthermore, we introduce a set of reduction rules for the verification of an EPC-specific soundness criterion and present a respective implementation.

In this paper, we suggest a solution to several limitations of current metaCASE technology: (i) the limited number of modelling levels, (ii) the rigid separation between those levels, (iii) the limited bootstrapping possibilities, (iv) the hardcoding of various types of information (e.g. GUI related information), and (v) the inability to record links between semantically related (e.g. referrentially redundant) constructs.

Our proposal is centered around a 2-layer metamodelling language called MetaL. MetaL is characterised by ubiquitous reflexivity (meta-circularity) and extended reification capabilities. The language is presented and applied to illustrative examples. Its pros and cons are discussed and an on-going prototypical metaCASE implementation is reported.

Product software companies are confronted with performance failures in their processes for which standard theories on situational method engineering need to be revisited. By developing a knowledge infrastructure, we support these companies with their method evolution by increasing the maturity of their processes incrementally. We first identify and formalize general method increments that are found in an exploratory case study. Then, we formalize common process needs, by developing a root-cause map for software product management and by identifying the root causes and process alternatives that are related to them. We validate the formalized method increments, and process needs by applying them to an extensive case study conducted at Infor Global Solutions. The results show that the formalized method increment types cover all increments that were found in the exploratory case study, and that the root-cause map is a useful technique to model the root causes encountered in product software companies.

During their life span, organizations must adapt continuously to an always evolving context and so have to do their Information Systems and the processes around them. The scope of these changes ranges from small-scale maintenance modifications or the redefinition of some business processes to the full deployment of a new system. In all cases, the resulting Information System will seldom be built from the scratch; as even when deploying it for the first time, we may consider that it starts from the description of the current human processes. For that reason, we may consider Information System development and its evolution as a reengineering process. In this paper, we present a framework that defines the generic activity of reengineering using Method Engineering techniques. The framework is built upon existing reengineering methods from different disciplines and provides six generic phases that can be instantiated with the purpose of defining new reengineering methods.

Radio frequency identification (RFID), and more recently the development of Near Field Communication (NFC) technology, have popularized the idea of linking real-world products with online information and services. Apart from early prototypes, however, the benefits of such automated identification technologies have so far been mostly available to industry, rather than consumers. With the next generation of mobile phones capable of reading both traditional bar codes through their integrated cameras, as well as RFID tags using the NFC standard, end-users themselves could take full advantage of such ubiquitous identification labels, given novel information architectures that go beyond simple web pages or industrial enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems. This paper presents an open lookup infrastructure that allows commercial, public, and private entities to easily provide information and services associated with tagged items, thus facilitating the rapid development and deployment of applications based on everyday products.

Supporting medical processes is among the most difficult endeavors. In contrast to uniform and unvaried workflows, the complexity and dynamics of patient treatment processes prevents the application of standard methodologies and tools, such as workflow systems. Despite long-term research in flexible and adaptive workflows as well as computerized clinical guidelines there are hardly any applications used in clinical routine. However, Standard Operation Procedures are a key element for any hospital to continuously improve their processes with regard to quality of patient care as well as resources required. Based on a three-level representation of know-how about patient care and treatment, we present a methodology for a stepwise formalisation and automation of clinical guidelines embedded into a patient data management system.

P2P Data Management Systems (PDMSs) have traditionally focused on the integration of data sources to support information processing on the Web. Recent trends suggest that the same problem may be viewed through the lens of data-providing Web services instead. In this paper, we propose a method to supplement current PDMSs with capability to handle data sources exposed as services. In our solution, Data-Providing services are modeled as RDF parameterized views. An algorithm is devised to compute those data-providing services’ compositions that are capable of answering a given query. The conducted experiments, though preliminary, show encouraging results, the algorithm scales up to 100 views in 6 seconds. Our data-driven composition approach applies special data treatment techniques between the composed services prior to query. This may include, merging, differencing and intersecting the returned results of two or more of Data-Providing services.

The objective of this paper is to report a set of experiences of applying participative enterprise modeling in different organizational contexts. While the authors have successfully applied the approach in many organizations, the paper primarily concentrates on three cases. On the basis of these experiences the paper presents a set of generic principles for applying participative enterprise modeling.

We investigate the process of collaborative modeling by analyzing conversations and loud thinking during modeling sessions and the resulting models themselves. We discovered the basic activities of the modeling teams on the social, pragmatic, semantic and syntactic levels and derived a schema for the pragmatic level. Our main conclusion is that team-based modeling can be characterized as a negotiation process. Drawing on these results we suggest a tool support for modeling.

In order to provide effective support, the introduction of process-aware information systems (PAIS) must not freeze existing business processes. Instead PAIS should allow authorized users to flexibly deviate from the predefined processes if required and to evolve business processes in a controlled manner over time. Many software vendors promise flexible system solutions for realizing such adaptive PAIS, but are often unable to cope with fundamental issues related to process change (e.g., correctness and robustness). The existence of different process support paradigms and the lack of methods for comparing existing change approaches makes it difficult for PAIS engineers to choose the adequate technology. In this paper we suggest a set of changes patterns and change support features to foster systematic comparison of existing process management technology with respect to change support. Based on these change patterns and features, we provide an evaluation of selected systems.