Cyberfraud & identity theft: the hidden costs of business process outsourcing

Offshore business process outsourcing involves additional risks, according to Anne Rouse and David Watson. Here they outline some of these with strategies for their management.

Managing collaborative business process in knowledge-intensive environment

Business processes especially those in knowledge intensive environments often emerge rather than following predefined steps. Supporting emergent processes is one of the key issues for collaborative knowledge sharing. This paper first introduces a component-based workspace metamodel used to support emergent processes. A loose-coupled collaborative process management model WorkPath is proposed based on the workspace structure to support flexible process evolution management and coordination among processes. Key elements that construct workspace and WorkPath, such as role, action, artifact, workspace and reference relation, are described in detail. An implementation prototype and future work is also discussed at the end of the paper.

IT-supported business process outsourcing (BPO): the good, the bad and the ugly

Outsourcing decisions are not, technically, irreversible. But in practical terms the organizational disruption and financial costs of bringing services back in house (“backsourcing”) mean that few organizations revert, even when quite dissatisfied with an arrangement. Instead, organizations typically seek to move to another outsourcing arrangement, that is sometimes less attractive than the original in-house delivery. Preliminary evidence from studies of business process outsourcing (BPO) experiences, like those into IT outsourcing’s success, suggests that only a minority of organizations report their BPO arrangements as satisfactory, implying that many are caught in this “can’t go back” bind. In this paper the authors examine two organizations contemplating the adoption of BPO, and consider their expectations and experiences in light of existing empirical literature. The paper concludes with a set of principles to assist organizations to avoid BPO failure.

E-business security management for Australian micro SMEs - a case study

Small and Medium Business Enterprises (SMEs) make a significant contribution to the economic viability of the Australian economy. The benefits of performing business in an on-line environment has been realised by Australian SMEs as the use of the Internet for performing business activities both with consumers and other businesses continues to increase. The findings of an empirical study and other evidence available indicate the uptake and advancement of performing e-business activities shall be dependent on two key complementary elements: first, the ability of Australian SMEs to secure their e-business systems; and second, the availability of an approach to recommend a practical e-business security management strategy. This paper presents the results of a case study which applied a previously developed methodology to a micro SME e-business system. The purpose was to validate the ability of the Australian Small to Medium Enterprise E-business Security Methodology (ASME-EBSM) to provide an effective security management strategy for Australian SMEs. The outcome demonstrated that this approach was both feasible and realistic for providing recommendations to secure the e-business activities performed and to protect the micro SME e-business system.

E-business security management for Australian small SMEs - a case study

Small and Medium sized Enterprises (SMEs) play an important role within the Australian economy. There is a strong business case for Australian SMEs to be involved in e-business, which has been realised as the use of the Internet for performing business activities continues to increase. The evidence available indicates the uptake and advancement of performing e-business activities shall be dependent on the ability of Australian SMEs to secure their e-business systems. This paper presents the results of a case study, which applied a previously developed methodology to a small SME e-business system. The purpose was to validate the ability of the Australian Small to Medium Enterprise E-business Security Methodology (ASME-EBSM) to provide an effective security management strategy for Australian SMEs. The outcome demonstrated that this approach was both feasible and realistic for providing recommendations to secure the e-business activities performed and to protect the small SME e-business system.

Business process affordances through the lens of activity theory

Business process designers are increasingly being challenged to develop processes that are not only useful in achieving business objectives but also accepted by the process participants and followed in the work place. Those objectives can only be achieved when both the business and the social/cultural aspects of the specific business environment are taken into account. Humans are not unaided individuals separated from a social group and from supporting artefacts but they are complemented by the environment in which they live in. This paper presents a novel framework for the design of business processes based on the application of activity system, providing a comprehensive framework of humans acting in the world, and the theory of affordances, representing action opportunities offered by the environment. The contribution of this paper is two-fold. First, it provides a theoretical contribution to affordance studies by offering a conceptual model that consolidates new developments in the concept, post Gibson. Second, it introduces a new framework (Activity/Affordance Framework - AAF) to aid the design of business processes. Finally, a case study is used to illustrate the utility of the framework in design practice.

Towards a semantic quality based approach for business process models improvement

Business process (BP) modeling aims at a better understanding of processes, allowing deciders to improve them. We propose to support this modeling with an approach encompassing methods and tools for BP models quality measurement and improvement. In this paper we focus on semantic quality. The latter is evaluated by aligning BP model concepts with domain knowledge. The alignment is conducted thanks to meta-models. We also define validation rules for checking the completeness of BP models. A medical case study illustrates the main steps of our approach.

Implementing green business processes : the importance of functional affordances of information systems

An environmentally sustainable and thus green business process is one that delivers organizational value whilst also exerting a minimal impact on the natural environment. Recent works from the field of Information Systems (IS) have argued that information systems can contribute to the design and implementation of sustainable business processes. While prior research has investigated how information systems can be used in order to support sustainable business practices, there is still a void as to the actual changes that business processes have to undergo in order to become environmentally sustainable, and the specific role that information systems play in enabling this change. In this paper, we provide a conceptualization of environmentally sustainable business processes, and discuss the role of functional affordances of information systems in enabling both incremental and radical changes in order to make processes environmentally sustainable. Our conceptualization is based on (a) a fundamental definition of the concept of environmental sustainability, grounded in two basic components: the environmental source and sink functions of any project or activity, and (b) the concept of functional affordances, which describe the potential uses originating in the material properties of information systems in relation to their use context. In order to illustrate the application of our framework and provide a first evaluation, we analyse two examples from prior research where information systems impacted on the sustainability of business processes.

Business process affordances

 The bypassing of established business processes is a significant problem in organisations. This research proposes a novel framework for incorporating psychological and social factors into the business process design. The framework promises to increase system adoption and decrease process bypassing, ultimately making an organisation's work more effective and efficient.

Critical success factors for the requirements engineering process, with reference to quality management of information systems development

Preliminary research into the critical factors associated with software development/implementation identified three dimensions for successful implementation based on alignment of the requirements engineering process with business needs, change management process and quality of the implementation process. Research results demonstrate the link between the conceptual model for process quality and the process management attributes determined during the research.

Understanding requirements engineering process: a challenge for practice and education

Reviews of the state of the professional practice in Requirements Engineering (RE) stress that the RE process is both complex and hard to describe, and suggest there is a significant difference between competent and "approved" practice. "Approved" practice is reflected by (in all likelihood, in fact, has its genesis in) RE education, so that the knowledge and skills taught to students do not match the knowledge and skills required and applied by competent practitioners.

A new understanding of the RE process has emerged from our recent study. RE is revealed as inherently creative, involving cycles of building and major reconstruction of the models developed, significantly different from the systematic and smoothly incremental process generally described in the literature. The process is better characterised as highly creative, opportunistic and insight driven. This mismatch between approved and actual practice provides a challenge to RE education - RE requires insight and creativity as well as technical knowledge. Traditional learning models applied to RE focus, however, on notation and prescribed processes acquired through repetition. We argue that traditional learning models fail to support the learning required for RE and propose both a new model based on cognitive flexibility and a framework for RE education to support this model.