Developing a Theory to Explain the Insights Gained Concerning Information Systems and Business Process Behaviour: The ASSESS-IT Project

Business Process (BP) literature promotes the value of business processes as essential gearwheels that help organisations to reach their goals. Similarly, many process design approaches claim that information technology is a major enabler of business process, a view also shared by the Information Systems (IS) community. Despite this, BP and IS approaches do not provide clear guidance on how to coordinate the design of BP and IS. Nor is any indication of which modelling techniques could be used to detect and design IT opportunities within a business process context given.The ASSESS-IT project examined this domain and proposed the use of simulation techniques to achieve BP and IT integration. The outcome of this project gave indication that depicting the dynamic behaviour of IS could be very helpful for BP modellers to predict the impact that the insertion of IS may have on organisational processes. This paper proposes a simulation framework to depict IS behaviour within a BP simulation model, namely BPS/ISS, and tests it using the case study that was part of the ASSESS-IT project.     

Towards a flexible information architecture: integrating business strategies,information systems strategies and business process redesign*

Abstract. . Factors which help to integrate business and information systems strategy are identified, a linchpin being the identification of what might be termed an information strategy. Information is defined and the implications of this definition for Vie provision of a flexible information environment are identified. The use of soft systems methodology in identifying key information needs and flows is summarized and an extension of this approach, which utilizes the concept of developing alternative future scenarios and associated business strategies, is introduced.     

The Impact of Top Management Commitment, Business Process Redesign, and IT Planning on the Business-to-Consumer E-Commerce Site

Managers and researchers would benefit from an understanding of the organizational practices that result in more featured e-commerce sites and of the particular features that contribute to firm performance. In a Web-based survey of 458 business-to-consumer e-commerce managers, CEO commitment and planning resulted in more featured sites whereas business process redesign did not. Four features, namely publishing applications, catalog applications, interactivity, and interfaces, predicted firm performance at a statistically significant level, while transaction applications and server performance did not. The research contributes by demonstrating the general importance of the organizational practices and site features, while raising questions about business process redesign, transaction applications, and server performance.     

Linking Business Processes and Information Systems Provision in a Dynamic Environment

This paper discusses decision and communication processes which link strategic activity in a business with information systems development activity. We develop a model which illustrates these processes as observed in one company (AXA Sun Life, Bristol HQ), but we suggest there may be generalizable features. We use Role Activity Diagrams as our diagramming method.In most organizations it is impractical to achieve a fully articulated business model and IS architecture. Organizations do try to make development (or acquisition) of information systems which will serve business needs as orderly as they can, in circumstances which are inherently complex and unstable. We suggest that the degree of regularity which is achieved in IS development within the business context comes not so much from following one overarching plan, as from a continuous process of adjustment, in which local short-term plans are weighed against current understanding of the business's key interests. What is needed to aid this process is a general framework of communication and decision making within which plans can be reviewed and modified in the light of changing circumstances. This paper presents an attempt to reveal and represent such a framework.     

Formal specification and state space analysis of an operational planning process

Formal models of business processes support performance and behavioural analysis of the processes for continuous improvement. Formal models are also useful in guiding the development of software tools to support the processes. This paper presents a formal model of the operational planning process used in an operational headquarters of the Australian Defence Force. The formal process model was developed using coloured petri nets (CPN or CP-nets). The constructed CPN model has allowed the planning process to be validated and analysed using simulation and state spaces. State space analysis was conducted using full state spaces and the sweep-line state space reduction method. The work of Lin Zhang was done while he was with the Command and Control Division of the Australian Defence Science and Technology Organisation.     

Business Process Re-engineering (BPR): The REBUS Approach

Many organisations undertake business process re-engineering (BPR) projects in order to improve efficiency and reduce costs. Although this approach can result in significant improvements and benefits, there are high risks associated with radical changes of business processes and the failure rate of BPR projects is reported to be as high as 70%. The Centre for Re-engineering Business Processes (REBUS) was established at Brunel University to provide a multidisciplinary environment for research into BPR and its success factors. This paper describes the REBUS approach to research concerning the success of BPR projects and presents examples of some of the projects carried out.     

A method for the computational modelling of dialectical argument with dialogue games

In this paper we describe a method for the specification of computationalmodels of argument using dialogue games. The method, which consists ofsupplying a set of semantic definitions for the performatives making upthe game, together with a state transition diagram, is described in full.Its use is illustrated by some examples of varying complexity, includingtwo complete specifications of particular dialogue games, Mackenzie's DC,and the authors' own TDG. The latter is also illustrated by a fully workedexample illustrating all the features of the game.     

When success turns into failure: a package-driven business process re-engineering project in the financial services industry

This article discusses a Business Process Re-engineering project that involved the implementation of an enterprise resource planning software package. Although the project was deemed to be a success when the system was first delivered, this initial success soon turned to failure. While the short-term financial results were spectacular, the long-term implications of the changes were more worrying. This paper raises many questions about the meaning of “success.” In particular, it shows how a “successful implementation” can, within a relatively short space of time, turn into failure.     

Domain Modelling and the Co-Design of Business Rules in the Telecommunication Business Area

This paper discusses the development of an enterprise domain model in an environment where part of the domain knowledge is vague and not yet formalised in company-wide business rules. The domain model was developed for a young company starting in the telecommunications sector. The company relied on a number of stand-alone business support systems and sought for a manner to integrate them. There was opted for the development of an enterprise-wide domain model that had to serve as an integration layer to coordinate the stand-alone applications. A specific feature of the company was that it could build up its information infrastructure form scratch, so that many aspects of its business were still in the process of being defined. The paper will highlight parts of the Enterprise Model where there was a need for co-designing business rules together with the domain model. A result of this whole effort was that the company got more insight into important domain knowledge and developed a common understanding across functional areas of the way of doing business.     

Management of information systems: Insights from accounting research

This paper advances our knowledge of information systems (IS) management by applying ideas and insights from accounting. An integrative cost–benefit framework is developed and applied to four areas of research: chargeback, outsourcing, decision support, and business process re-engineering and improvement. We show that the accounting literature contributes significantly to scholarship on the management of IS.     

Modelling families of business process variants: A decomposition driven method

Business processes usually do not exist as singular entities that can be managed in isolation, but rather as families of business process variants. When modelling such families of variants, analysts are confronted with the choice between modelling each variant separately, or modelling multiple or all variants in a single model. Modelling each variant separately leads to a proliferation of models that share common parts, resulting in redundancies and inconsistencies. Meanwhile, modelling all variants together leads to less but more complex models, thus hindering on comprehensibility. This paper introduces a method for modelling families of process variants that addresses this trade-off. The key tenet of the method is to alternate between steps of decomposition (breaking down processes into sub-processes) and deciding which parts should be modelled together and which ones should be modelled separately. We have applied the method to two case studies: one concerning the consolidation of existing process models, and another dealing with green-field process discovery. In both cases, the method produced fewer models with respect to the baseline and reduced duplicity by up to 50% without significant impact on complexity.     

基于实例的变型业务流程设计的研究

重组企业业务流程可以提高企业对市场的竞争能力.把变型产品的业务流程看作是抽象的变型产品,提出了以实现业务流程重组为目标的变型业务流程设计框架.在该框架中,以场景和刻面概念分别作为描述实例的手段,消除需求和设计间的"语义断层";提出基于树匹配的实例检索算法,以提高实例检索的查准率和查全率.