Towards a service portfolio management framework

Services in the form of business services or IT-enabled (Web) Services have become a corporate asset of high interest in striving towards the agile organisation. However, while the design and management of a single service is widely studied and well understood, little is known about how a set of services can be managed. This gap motivated this paper, in which we explore the concept of Service Portfolio Management. In particular, we propose a Service Portfolio Management Framework that explicates service portfolio goals, tasks, governance issues, methods and enablers. The Service Portfolio Management Framework is based upon a thorough analysis and consolidation of existing, well-established portfolio management approaches. From an academic point of view, the Service Portfolio Management Framework can be positioned as an extension of portfolio management conceptualisations in the area of service management. Based on the framework, possible directions for future research are provided. From a practical point of view, the Service Portfolio Management Framework provides an organisation with a novel approach to managing its emerging service portfolios.

Social innovation to solve homelessness : wicked solutions for wicked problems

Homelessness is a complex problem that manifests in all societies. This intractable and ‘wicked’ issue resists single-agency solutions and its resolution and requires a large, on-going investment of financial and professional resources that few organisations can sustain. This paper adopts a social innovation framework to examine government and community sector responses to homelessness. While recent evaluations and policy prescriptions have suggested better integrated and more co-ordinated service delivery models for addressing homelessness, there is little understanding of the innovation framework in which alternative service system paradigms emerge. A framework that identifies/distils and explains different innovation levels is put forward. The framework highlights that while government may lead strategic level innovations, community organisations are active in developing innovation at the service and client level. Moreover, community organisations may be unaware of the innovative capacity that resides in their creative responses to resolving social crisis and marginalisation through being without shelter.

Management of comorbidity

Comorbidity of substance use disorders and mental disorders is very common, and there is substantial heterogeneity within subgroups in terms of both their characteristics and the nature of causal relationships between the disorders. Assessment and management strategies need to deal with both the size of the problem across the community and its severe impact in some subgroups, including those with psychosis. At this stage, the research base from which we can derive recommendations is very narrow, but it does offer a foundation for preliminary conclusions. This chapter reviews the current evidence and makes some suggestions for assessment and for both psychological and pharmacological management.

Means of achieving Business Process Management success factors

Business Process Management (BPM) in recent years has become a highest priority area for most organizations. Since this concept is multidisciplinary, success in this endeavour requires considering different factors. A number of studies have been conducted to identify these factors; however, most are limited to the introduction of high-level factors or to the identification of the means of success within only a specific context. This paper presents a holistic framework of success factors as well as the associated means for achieving success. This framework introduces nine factors, namely culture, leadership, communication, Information Technology, strategic alignment, people, project management, performance measurement and methodology. Each of these factors are characterized further by defining some sub-constructs and under each sub construct the means for achieving success are also introduced. This framework including means for achieving success can be useful for BPM project stakeholders in adequately planning the initiative and checking the progress during the implementation.

Application of text mining in analysing road crashes for road asset management

Traffic safety is a major concern world-wide. It is in both the sociological and economic interests of society that attempts should be made to identify the major and multiple contributory factors to those road crashes. This paper presents a text mining based method to better understand the contextual relationships inherent in road crashes. By examining and analyzing the crash report data in Queensland from year 2004 and year 2005, this paper identifies and reports the major and multiple contributory factors to those crashes. The outcome of this study will support road asset management in reducing road crashes.

User-designer collaboration during the early stage of the design process

As user involvement becomes a necessary part of the product development process, various ways of accessing users' latent needs have been developed and studied. Reviews of literatures in user involvement and product development have revealed that accessing users' latent needs and transferring them into design process could be facilitated by effectively implementing user-designer collaboration during the early stage of the design process. In this paper, various types of user-designer collaboration were observed and then distinct characteristics of user-designer collaboration were classified into three categories. 1) Passive objectivity, 2) workplace democratisation, and 3) shared contexts were observed as strategies for better user-designer collaboration, which have been employed in the area of user-centred design, user participatory design and design for experiencing. Based on the literature review, this paper proposed a basic collaboration mechanism between the users and the designers during the early stage of the design process and then discussed how its mechanism will help to describe the interactions between the users and the designers during the user involvement sessions.

Building partnerships as a key strategy in developing an event management model for an international dance event : a case study of the 2008 WDA (World Dance Alliance) Global Summit, Brisbane, Australia

With the increasing growth of cultural events both in Australia and internationally, there has also been an increase in event management studies; in theory and in practice. Although a series of related knowledge and skills required specifically by event managers has already been identified by many researchers (Perry et al., 1996; Getz, 2002 & Silvers et al., 2006) and generic event management models proposed, including ‘project management’ strategies in an event context (Getz, 2007), knowledge gaps still exist in relation to identifying specific types of events, especially for not-for-profit arts events. For events of a largely voluntary nature, insufficient resources are recognised as the most challenging; including finance, human resources and infrastructure. Therefore, the concepts and principles which are adopted by large scale commercial events may not be suitable for not-for-profit arts events aiming at providing professional network opportunities for artists. Building partnerships are identified as a key strategy in developing an effective event management model for this type of event. Using the 2008 World Dance Alliance Global Summit (WDAGS) in Brisbane 13-18 July, as a case study, the level, nature and relationship of key partners are investigated. Data is triangulated from interviews with organisers of the 2008 WDAGS, on-line and email surveys of delegates, participant observation and analysis of formal and informal documents, to produce a management model suited to this kind of event.

Substance misuse in patients with schizophrenia : Epidemiology and management

Substance misuse in individuals with schizophrenia is very common, especially in young men, in communities where use is frequent and in people receiving inpatient treatment. Problematic use occurs at very low intake levels, so that most affected people are not physically dependent (with the exception of nicotine). People with schizophrenia and substance misuse have poorer symptomatic and functional outcomes than those with schizophrenia alone. Unless there is routine screening, substance misuse is often missed in assessments. Service systems tend to be separated, with poor inter-communication, and affected patients are often excluded from services because of their comorbidity. However, effective management of these disorders requires a fully integrated approach because of the close inter-relationship of the disorders. Use of atypical antipsychotics may be especially important in this population because of growing evidence (especially on clozapine and risperidone) that nicotine smoking, alcohol misuse and possibly some other substance misuse is reduced. Several pharmacotherapies for substance misuse can be used safely in people with schizophrenia, but the evidence base is small and guidelines for their use are necessarily derived from experience in the general population.

Quality-aware business process management

Business Process Management (BPM) has emerged as a popular management approach in both Information Technology (IT) and management practice. While there has been much research on business process modelling and the BPM life cycle, there has been little attention given to managing the quality of a business process during its life cycle. This study addresses this gap by providing a framework for organisations to manage the quality of business processes during different phases of the BPM life cycle. This study employs a multi-method research design which is based on the design science approach and the action research methodology. During the design science phase, the artifacts to model a quality-aware business process were developed. These artifacts were then evaluated through three cycles of action research which were conducted within three large Australian-based organisations. This study contributes to the body of BPM knowledge in a number of ways. Firstly, it presents a quality-aware BPM life cycle that provides a framework on how quality can be incorporated into a business process and subsequently managed during the BPM life cycle. Secondly, it provides a framework to capture and model quality requirements of a business process as a set of measurable elements that can be incorporated into the business process model. Finally, it proposes a novel root cause analysis technique for determining the causes of quality issues within business processes.