A study on uncertain dynamic disaster management tasks, knowledge sharing, and task performance

Each disaster presents itself with a unique set of characteristics that are hard to determine a priori. Thus disaster management tasks are inherently uncertain, requiring knowledge sharing and quick decision making that involves coordination across different levels and collaborators. While there has been an increasing interest among both researchers and practitioners in utilizing knowledge management to improve disaster management, little research has been reported about how to assess the dynamic nature of disaster management tasks, and what kinds of knowledge sharing are appropriate for different dimensions of task uncertainty characteristics. ^ Using combinations of qualitative and quantitative methods, this research study developed the dimensions and their corresponding measures of the uncertain dynamic characteristics of disaster management tasks and tested the relationships between the various dimensions of uncertain dynamic disaster management tasks and task performance through the moderating and mediating effects of knowledge sharing. ^ Furthermore, this research work conceptualized and assessed task uncertainty along three dimensions: novelty, unanalyzability, and significance; knowledge sharing along two dimensions: knowledge sharing purposes and knowledge sharing mechanisms; and task performance along two dimensions: task effectiveness and task efficiency. Analysis results of survey data collected from Miami-Dade County emergency managers suggested that knowledge sharing purposes and knowledge sharing mechanisms moderate and mediate uncertain dynamic disaster management task and task performance. Implications for research and practice as well directions for future research are discussed.^

A deontic analysis of inter -organizational control requirements

This research focuses on the design and verification of inter-organizational controls. Instead of looking at a documentary procedure, which is the flow of documents and data among the parties, the research examines the underlying deontic purpose of the procedure, the so-called deontic process, and identifies control requirements to secure this purpose. The vision of the research is a formal theory for streamlining bureaucracy in business and government procedures. ^ Underpinning most inter-organizational procedures are deontic relations, which are about rights and obligations of the parties. When all parties trust each other, they are willing to fulfill their obligations and honor the counter parties’ rights; thus controls may not be needed. The challenge is in cases where trust may not be assumed. In these cases, the parties need to rely on explicit controls to reduce their exposure to the risk of opportunism. However, at present there is no analytic approach or technique to determine which controls are needed for a given contracting or governance situation. ^ The research proposes a formal method for deriving inter-organizational control requirements based on static analysis of deontic relations and dynamic analysis of deontic changes. The formal method will take a deontic process model of an inter-organizational transaction and certain domain knowledge as inputs to automatically generate control requirements that a documentary procedure needs to satisfy in order to limit fraud potentials. The deliverables of the research include a formal representation namely Deontic Petri Nets that combine multiple modal logics and Petri nets for modeling deontic processes, a set of control principles that represent an initial formal theory on the relationships between deontic processes and documentary procedures, and a working prototype that uses model checking technique to identify fraud potentials in a deontic process and generate control requirements to limit them. Fourteen scenarios of two well-known international payment procedures—cash in advance and documentary credit—have been used to test the prototype. The results showed that all control requirements stipulated in these procedures could be derived automatically.^

Empirical investigation of critical success factors for implementing business intelligence systems in multiple engineering asset management organisations

Engineering asset management organisations (EAMOs) are increasingly motivated to implement business intelligence (BI) systems in response to dispersed information environments and compliance requirements. However, the implementation of a business intelligence (BI) system is a complex undertaking requiring considerable resources. Yet, so far, there are few defined critical success factors (CSFs) to which management can refer. Drawing on the CSFs framework derived from a previous Delphi study, a multiple-case design was used to examine how these CSFs could be implemented by five EAMOs. The case studies substantiate the construct and applicability of the CSFs framework. These CSFs are: committed management support and sponsorship, a clear vision and well-established business case, business-centric championship and balanced team composition, a business-driven and iterative develop ment approach, user-oriented change management, a business-driven, scalable and flexible technical framework, and sustainable data quality and integrity. More significantly, the study further reveals that those organisations which address the CSFs from a business orientation approach will be more likely to achieve better results.

AN OCCUPATIONAL INJURY MANAGEMENT INFORMATION SYSTEM FOR THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS HEALTH SCIENCE CENTER AT HOUSTON

The purpose of this research and development project was to develop a method, a design, and a prototype for gathering, managing, and presenting data about occupational injuries.^ State-of-the-art systems analysis and design methodologies were applied to the long standing problem in the field of occupational safety and health of processing workplace injuries data into information for safety and health program management as well as preliminary research about accident etiologies. The top-down planning and bottom-up implementation approach was utilized to design an occupational injury management information system. A description of a managerial control system and a comprehensive system to integrate safety and health program management was provided.^ The project showed that current management information systems (MIS) theory and methods could be applied successfully to the problems of employee injury surveillance and control program performance evaluation. The model developed in the first section was applied at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHSCH).^ The system in current use at the UTHSCH was described and evaluated, and a prototype was developed for the UTHSCH. The prototype incorporated procedures for collecting, storing, and retrieving records of injuries and the procedures necessary to prepare reports, analyses, and graphics for management in the Health Science Center. Examples of reports, analyses, and graphics presenting UTHSCH and computer generated data were included.^ It was concluded that a pilot test of this MIS should be implemented and evaluated at the UTHSCH and other settings. Further research and development efforts for the total safety and health management information systems, control systems, component systems, and variable selection should be pursued. Finally, integration of the safety and health program MIS into the comprehensive or executive MIS was recommended. ^

Green IT : a matter of business and information systems engineering?

This panel discusses the impact of Green IT on information systems and how information systems can meet environmental challenges and ensure sustainability. We wish to highlight the role of green business processes, and specifically the contributions that the management of these processes can play in leveraging the transformative power of IS in order to create an environmentally sustainable society. The management of business processes has typically been thought of in terms of business improvement alongside the dimensions time, cost, quality, or flexibility – the so-called ‘devil’s quadrangle’. Contemporary organizations, however, increasingly become aware of the need to create more sustainable, IT-enabled business processes that are also successful in terms of their economic, ecological, as well as social impact. Exemplary ecological key performance indicators that increasingly find their way into the agenda of managers include carbon emissions, data center energy, or renewable energy consumption (SAP 2010). The key challenge, therefore, is to extend the devil’s quadrangle to a devil’s pentagon, including sustainability as an important fifth dimension in process change.

A Business Continuity Management Simulator

Comprehensive BCM plan testing for complex information systems is difficult and expensive, if not infeasible. This paper suggests that a simulator could be employed to ameliorate these problems. A general model for such a BCM simulator is presented, and the implementation of a prototype simulator is described. The simulator reacts to system disturbances by seeking alternative configurations provided within the BCM plan, reporting the resource availabilities in the updated system and identifying any failure to meet the requirements placed on the system. The simulator then explores any changes in data security introduced by the proposed post disturbance configuration and reports any enhanced risk.

A software framework for risk-aware business process management

With the large diffusion of Business Process Managemen (BPM) automation suites, the possibility of managing process-related risks arises. This paper introduces an innovative framework for process-related risk management and describes a working implementation realized by extending the YAWL system. The framework covers three aspects of risk management: risk monitoring, risk prevention, and risk mitigation. Risk monitoring functionality is provided using a sensor-based architecture, where sensors are defined at design time and used at run-time for monitoring purposes. Risk prevention functionality is provided in the form of suggestions about what should be executed, by who, and how, through the use of decision trees. Finally, risk mitigation functionality is provided as a sequence of remedial actions (e.g. reallocating, skipping, rolling back of a work item) that should be executed to restore the process to a normal situation.

Current research in risk-aware business process management : overview, comparison, and gap analysis

The management of risks in business processes has been a subject of active research in the past few years. Many benefits can potentially be obtained by integrating the two traditionally-separated fields of risk management and business process management, including the ability to minimize risks in business processes (by design) and to mitigate risks at run time. In the past few years, an increasing amount of research aimed at delivering such an integrated system has been proposed. However, these research efforts vary in terms of their scope, goals, and functionality. Through systematic collection and evaluation of relevant literature, this paper compares and classifies current approaches in the area of risk-aware business process management in order to identify and explain relevant research gaps. The process through which relevant literature is collected, filtered, and evaluated is also detailed.

Dynamic weaving of aspects for business process management systems

Reducing complexity in Information Systems is a main concern in both research and industry. One strategy for reducing complexity is separation of concerns. This strategy advocates separating various concerns, like security and privacy, from the main concern. It results in less complex, easily maintainable, and more reusable Information Systems. Separation of concerns is addressed through the Aspect Oriented paradigm. This paradigm has been well researched and implemented in programming, where languages such as AspectJ have been developed. However, the rsearch on aspect orientation for Business Process Management is still at its beginning. While some efforts have been made proposing Aspect Oriented Business Process Modelling, it has not yet been investigated how to enact such process models in a Workflow Management System. In this paper, we define a set of requirements that specifies the execution of aspect oriented business process models. We create a Coloured Petri Net specification for the semantics of so-called Aspect Service that fulfils these requirements. Such a service extends the capability of a Workflow Management System with support for execution of aspect oriented business process models. The design specification of the Aspect Service is also inspected through state space analysis.

Investigating the success of operational business process management systems

Business process management systems (BPMS) belong to a class of enterprise information systems that are characterized by the dependence on explicitly modeled process logic. Through the process logic, it is relatively easy to manage explicitly the routing and allocation of work items along a business process through the system. Inspired by the DeLone and McLean framework, we theorize that these process-aware system features are important attributes of system quality, which in turn will elevate key user evaluations such as perceived usefulness, and usage satisfaction. We examine this theoretical model using data collected from four different, mostly mature BPM system projects. Our findings validate the importance of input quality as well as allocation and routing attributes as antecedents of system quality, which, in turn, determines both usefulness and satisfaction with the system. We further demonstrate how service quality and workflow dependency are significant precursors to perceived usefulness. Our results suggest the appropriateness of a multi-dimensional conception of system quality for future research, and provide important design-oriented advice for the design and configuration of BPMSs.

Dynamic weaving in aspect oriented business process management

Reducing complexity in Information Systems is an important topic in both research and industry. One strategy to deal with complexity is separation of concerns, which results in less complex, easily maintainable and more reusable systems. Separation of concerns can be addressed through the Aspect Oriented paradigm. Although this paradigm has been well researched in programming, it is still at the preliminary stage in the area of Business Process Management. While some efforts have been made to extend business process modelling with aspect oriented capability, it has not yet been investigated how aspect oriented business process models should be executed at runtime. In this paper, we propose a generic solution to support execution of aspect oriented business process models based on the principle behind dynamic weaving of aspects. This solution is formally specified using Coloured Petri Nets. The resulting formal specification serves as the blueprint to the implementation of a service module in the framework of a state-of-the-art Business Process Management System. Using this developed artefact, a case study is performed in which two simplified processes from real business in the domain of banking are modelled and executed in an aspect oriented manner. Through this case study, we also demonstrate that adoption of aspect oriented modularization increases the reusability while reducing the complexity of business process models in practice.

On Merging Business Process Management and Geographic Information Systems : Modeling and Execution of Ecological Concerns in Processes

Business Process Management describes a holistic management approach for the systematic design, modeling, execution, validation, monitoring and improvement of organizational business processes. Traditionally, most attention within this community has been given to control-flow aspects, i.e., the ordering and sequencing of business activities, oftentimes in isolation with regards to the context in which these activities occur. In this paper, we propose an approach that allows executable process models to be integrated with Geographic Information Systems. This approach enables process models to take geospatial and other geographic aspects into account in an explicit manner both during the modeling phase and the execution phase. We contribute a structured modeling methodology, based on the well-known Business Process Model and Notation standard, which is formalized by means of a mapping to executable Colored Petri nets. We illustrate the feasibility of our approach by means of a sustainability-focused case example of a process with important ecological concerns.

Business service management : understanding business models

One of the prominent topics in Business Service Management is business models for (new) services. Business models are useful for service management and engineering as they provide a broader and more holistic perspective on services. Business models are particularly relevant for service innovation as this requires paying attention to the business models that make new services viable and business model innovation can drive the innovation of new and established services. Before we can have a look at business models for services, we first need to understand what business models are. This is not straight-forward as business models are still not well comprehended and the knowledge about business models is fragmented over different disciplines, such as information systems, strategy, innovation, and entrepreneurship. This whitepaper, ‘Understanding business models,’ introduces readers to business models. This whitepaper contributes to enhancing the understanding of business models, in particular the conceptualisation of business models by discussing and integrating business model definitions, frameworks and archetypes from different disciplines. After reading this whitepaper, the reader will have a well-developed understanding about what business models are and how the concept is sometimes interpreted and used in different ways. It will help the reader in assessing their own understanding of business models and that and of others. This will contribute to a better and more beneficial use of business models, an increase in shared understanding, and making it easier to work with business model techniques and tools.

Is your organizational culture fit for business process management?

All processes are modeled, all process metrics defined, all process support systems are set up; yet still, processes are not running smoothly and departmental silos are more present than ever. Both practitioners and academics tell the same story. A successful business process management (BPM) implementation goes beyond using the right methods and putting the right systems in place. In fact, an important success factor for BPM is establishing the right organizational culture, that is, a culture that supports the achievement and maintenance of efficient and effective business processes.

From product innovation to organizational innovation – and what that has to do with Business Process Management

One of the key trends that we currently witness not only in academic circles but also in industry - all throughout Australia at least – is that “Innovation” is becoming an important driver for business projects, for change agendas – and in turn, for Business Process Management initiatives.