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1 – 10 of 122
Article
Publication date: 1 June 2005

Schahram Dustdar

In the last decade, bureaucratic organizational hierarchies have been increasingly replaced with flatter organizational forms, bringing together people from different disciplines…

1646

Abstract

Purpose

In the last decade, bureaucratic organizational hierarchies have been increasingly replaced with flatter organizational forms, bringing together people from different disciplines to form project teams within and between organizations. Distributed project teams often are self‐configuring networks of mobile and “fixed” people, devices, and applications. They are the natural next step in the evolution of distributed computing, after client‐server, web‐based, and peer‐to‐peer computing. Seeks to show that a newly emerging requirement is to facilitate not just mobility of content (i.e. to support a multitude of devices and connectivity modes) to project members, but also mobility of context (i.e. to provide traceable and continuous support of dynamic relationships between people, artifacts, and business processes).

Design/methodology/approach

The contribution of this paper is to present the design goals, the architecture, and implementation of a system aiming at supporting internet‐enabled workflow and groupware for project teams, enabling traceable and continuous support of associations (relationships) between people, artifacts, and business processes.

Findings

The findings indicate that building internet‐enabled workflow and groupware systems is valuable for virtual teamwork, since they provide a foundation for context‐aware and process‐aware information systems.

Originality/value

This article outlines some foundations of process‐aware collaborative work. Provides an analysis of current workflow and groupware shortcomings in respect of virtual teamwork, outlines the design goals, architecture and an implementation of a system aiming at supporting virtual teams on the internet.

Details

Business Process Management Journal, vol. 11 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1463-7154

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 3 July 2017

Julio Cesar Battirola Filho, Flávio Piechnicki, Eduardo de Freitas Rocha Loures and Eduardo Alves Portela Santos

The purpose of this paper is to establish a Process-aware FMEA (PAFMEA) development environment in order to face the main Failure Mode Effect Analysis (FMEA) deficiencies…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to establish a Process-aware FMEA (PAFMEA) development environment in order to face the main Failure Mode Effect Analysis (FMEA) deficiencies concerning failure analysis in maintenance.

Design/methodology/approach

The proposed framework integrates Delphi methodology to obtain consensus of specialists’ opinions, analytic hierarchy process (AHP) to perform multiple criteria-based risk assessment and a business process management system to instantiate the development cycle. A conceptual model is presented and analyzed through a case study.

Findings

PAFMEA reveals a new perception in the evaluation and prioritization of failure modes during maintenance failure analysis, such as risk definition and resource availability, dealing with conflicting characteristics in decision-making approaches.

Practical implications

The PAFMEA environment includes requirements that are grouped with a process instantiation of an AHP structure, providing a high degree of applicability and performance to the development cycles of the FMEA. The new method confronts the classical risk assessment approach and contributes to the literature, adding new perspectives to the FMEA analysis.

Originality/value

PAFMEA brings new and promising perspectives to the FMEA development cycle, which, in short, means adding on a multi-criteria failure analysis method (AHP) through a process-aware platform, with performance impacts in FMEA knowledge sharing, decision making and delivery.

Details

Journal of Manufacturing Technology Management, vol. 28 no. 6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1741-038X

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 16 August 2013

Eduardo Alves Portela Santos, Rosemary Francisco, Maja Pesic and Wil van der Aalst

Increasing flexibility and complexity of modern process‐aware information systems (PAIS) usually leads to less guidance for its users and consequently requires more experienced…

Abstract

Purpose

Increasing flexibility and complexity of modern process‐aware information systems (PAIS) usually leads to less guidance for its users and consequently requires more experienced users. A flexible PAIS allows users to freely choose a specific execution sequence of activities. However, there are no guarantees that the chosen sequence conforms to established business rules. This context proposes a supervisory control service (SCS), which can be used to support end‐users of flexible PAIS during process execution by giving a list of disabled (or enabled) events (activities), i.e. at any point in time a list of possible next steps is given.

Design/methodology/approach

The SCS has been implemented in process mining framework (ProM – www.processmining.org) and the experiment that has been performed shows its feasibility. The computational infrastructure already implemented in ProM allows communication with external applications and allows the SCS to be integrated with PAIS that records events. This paper demonstrated that the SCS in ProM can cooperate with PAIS system in order to support users.

Findings

The SCS proposed in this paper monitors and restricts execution sequences of activities such that business rules are always obeyed. The system offers support based on business rules but does not limit the user by imposing rigid control‐flow structures. Users can adopt this service as a guide to execute activities with a guarantee that business rules are followed and goals are met. The SCS also offers flexibility to users to choose execution sequences.

Originality/value

The paper argues that the proposed approach has many advantages on controlling/supporting flexible processes. Supervisory control theory allows an automatic control synthesis instead of the usual manual and heuristic procedures. Thus, new control actions may be rapidly and automatically designed when modifications, such as redefinition of business rules or activities arrangements, are necessary. The flexible processes can be made to behave optimally with respect to a variety of criteria, where optimal means in minimally restrictive way.

Article
Publication date: 1 April 2014

Christian Sonnenberg and Jan vom Brocke

The purpose of this paper is to integrate business process management (BPM) and accounting on a conceptual level in order to account for the economic implications of process-state…

1907

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to integrate business process management (BPM) and accounting on a conceptual level in order to account for the economic implications of process-state changes in process design-time and process run-time.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper adopts a design science research paradigm. The research, grounded in an “events” approach to accounting theory, builds on the REA accounting model that has been adapted for the design of a process accounting model (PAM).

Findings

The paper presents a PAM that can be used to structure event records in process-aware information systems (PAIS) to enable process-oriented accounting. The PAM is specified as a light weight data structure that is intended for the integration of PAIS and accounting information systems.

Research limitations/implications

As this paper is technical in nature, more research is needed to evaluate more thoroughly its approach in naturalistic settings.

Practical implications

The PAM can support traditional accounting approaches, and because of the adopted events approach, it readily supports use cases related to real-time analytics in BPM and accounting.

Originality/value

The PAM presents a novel approach to integrating BPM and accounting. The novelty of this approach lies in its use of event records to document flows of economic resources.

Article
Publication date: 7 September 2015

Marlen Hofmann, Hans Betke and Stefan Sackmann

The application of business process methods in the domain of disaster response management (DRM) is seen as promising approach due to the similarity of business processes and…

1212

Abstract

Purpose

The application of business process methods in the domain of disaster response management (DRM) is seen as promising approach due to the similarity of business processes and disaster response processes at the general structure and goals. But up to now only a few approaches were able to handle the special characteristics of the DRM domain. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to identify the existing approaches and analyze them for the discussion of general requirements for applying methods and tools from business process management to DRM.

Design/methodology/approach

A structured literature review covering a wide field of information system-related publications (conferences and journals) is used to identify and classify general requirements discussed as the state of the art.

Findings

The work in this paper resulted in a suitable classification of requirements for the development of process-oriented DRM approaches deduced from the existing work. This was used to outline and analyze the current research landscape of this topic and identify research gaps as well as existing limitations.

Research limitations/implications

Although the review of the state of the art is based on a wide set of publication databases, there may exist relevant research papers which have not been taken into consideration.

Originality/value

The elaborated requirements provide value for both the research community and practitioners. They can be considered to develop new or improve existing DRM systems and, thus, to exploit the potentials of process-oriented IT in supporting DRM in the case of disaster.

Details

Business Process Management Journal, vol. 21 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1463-7154

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 13 June 2020

Albert Plugge, Shahrokh Nikou and Harry Bouwman

Due to the convergence of rapid business developments and digitization challenges, service orientation is back on the research agenda as a concept to improve firms’ business…

4873

Abstract

Purpose

Due to the convergence of rapid business developments and digitization challenges, service orientation is back on the research agenda as a concept to improve firms’ business services. Yet, little is known about the type of determinants that are relevant and to what degree they affect a firm’s service-oriented strategy.

Design/methodology/approach

Building on structural equation modeling (SEM) and a unique data set of 131 international firms from different continents, the authors identify and analyze the key determinants in the context of a firm’s service-oriented strategy.

Findings

The findings show that in order to cater for changes, organizations have to manage and adapt the coherence of the determinants’ business services, business processes and knowledge sharing continuously. Moreover, the results show that a service-oriented strategy is not only influenced by business services as such, but business services mediate the relationships between business processes, governance and process-aware information systems to a service-oriented strategy.

Research limitations/implications

A limitation is imposed by the limited sample size and the unbalanced response of participants (executive management). In future research, a more extensive survey among a broader group of participants will help the authors to develop their model further in order to generalize the results, as well as more finely grained research related to geography and size might be pursued. Future empirical research is necessary to identify and test the relationships between other constructs and study their effect on a firm’s service-oriented strategy.

Practical implications

On a practical level, the authors postulate that an organization’s executive management should pay attention to invest in an organizational entity (department) that manages business services continuously. This organizational entity has to ensure that related processes and knowledge sharing are in place to establish and maintain a service-oriented strategy.

Originality/value

This research contributes to service-oriented literature by operationalizing the implementation of an organization’s service-oriented strategy. The authors’ insights go beyond the findings of Aier et al. (2011). The authors found that a service-oriented strategy influences service-oriented project success positively. The authors extended these findings, based on a unique data set, by studying business services and influencing determinants (i.e. business processes, governance, PAIS and knowledge sharing) within the context of service orientation. The renewed attention to the concept of service orientation provides insights into critical determinants that influence the implementation of a service-oriented strategy.

Details

Business Process Management Journal, vol. 27 no. 8
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1463-7154

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 2 November 2015

Ana Rocío Cárdenas Maita, Lucas Corrêa Martins, Carlos Ramón López Paz, Sarajane Marques Peres and Marcelo Fantinato

Process mining is a research area used to discover, monitor and improve real business processes by extracting knowledge from event logs available in process-aware information

4046

Abstract

Purpose

Process mining is a research area used to discover, monitor and improve real business processes by extracting knowledge from event logs available in process-aware information systems. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the application of artificial neural networks (ANNs) and support vector machines (SVMs) in data mining tasks in the process mining context. The goal was to understand how these computational intelligence techniques are currently being applied in process mining.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors conducted a systematic literature review with three research questions formulated to evaluate the use of ANNs and SVMs in process mining.

Findings

The authors identified 11 papers as primary studies according to the criteria established in the review protocol. Most of them deal with process mining enhancement, mainly using ANNs. Regarding the data mining task, the authors identified three types of tasks used: categorical prediction (or classification); numeric prediction, considering the “regression” type, and clustering analysis.

Originality/value

Although there is scientific interest in process mining, little attention has been specifically given to ANNs and SVM. This scenario does not reflect the general context of data mining, where these two techniques are widely used. This low use may be possibly due to a relative lack of knowledge about their potential for this type of problem, which the authors seek to reverse with the completion of this study.

Details

Business Process Management Journal, vol. 21 no. 6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1463-7154

Keywords

Content available
Article
Publication date: 1 April 2004

W.M.P. van der Aalst

4781

Abstract

Details

Business Process Management Journal, vol. 10 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1463-7154

Article
Publication date: 4 June 2018

Ahangama Withanage Janitha Chandimali Abeygunasekera, Wasana Bandara, Moe Wynn and Ogan Yigitbasioglu

Multidisciplinary business process management (BPM) research can reap significant impact. We can particularly benefit from incorporating accounting concepts to address some of the…

1301

Abstract

Purpose

Multidisciplinary business process management (BPM) research can reap significant impact. We can particularly benefit from incorporating accounting concepts to address some of the key BPM challenges, such as value-creation and return on investment of BPM activities. However, research which addresses a relationship between BPM and accounting is scarce. The purpose of this paper is to provide a detailed synthesis of the current literature that has integrated accounting aspects with BPM. The authors profile and thematically describe existing research, and derive evidence-based directions to guide future research.

Design/methodology/approach

A multi-staged structured literature review approach to search for the two broad themes, accounting and BPM, supported by NVivo (to manage the papers and the coding and analysis processes) was designed and followed.

Findings

The paper confirms the dearth of work that ties the two disciplines, despite the synergetic multidisciplinary results that can be attained. Available literature is mostly from the management accounting perspective and relates to describing how performance management, in particular performance measurement, can be applicable to process improvement initiatives together with tools such as activity-based costing and the balanced scorecard. There is a lack of research that examines BPM in relation to any financial accounting perspectives (such as external reporting). Future research directions are proposed together with implications for practitioners with the findings of this structured literature review.

Research limitations/implications

The paper provides a detailed synthesis of the existing literature on the nexus between accounting and BPM. It summarizes the implications for practitioners and provides directions for future research by identifying key gaps and opportunities with a sound contextual basis for extension and new work.

Originality/value

Effective literature reviews create strong foundations for future research and accumulate the otherwise scattered knowledge into a single place. This is the first structured literature review that provides a detailed synthesis of the research that ties together the accounting and BPM disciplines, providing a basis for future research directions together with implications for practitioners.

Details

Business Process Management Journal, vol. 24 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1463-7154

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 28 October 2014

Xinwei Zhu, Jan Recker, Guobin Zhu and Flávia Maria Santoro

Context-awareness has emerged as an important principle in the design of flexible business processes. The goal of the research is to develop an approach to extend context-aware…

1160

Abstract

Purpose

Context-awareness has emerged as an important principle in the design of flexible business processes. The goal of the research is to develop an approach to extend context-aware business process modeling toward location-awareness. The purpose of this paper is to identify and conceptualize location-dependencies in process modeling.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper uses a pattern-based approach to identify location-dependency in process models. The authors design specifications for these patterns. The authors present illustrative examples and evaluate the identified patterns through a literature review of published process cases.

Findings

This paper introduces location-awareness as a new perspective to extend context-awareness in BPM research, by introducing relevant location concepts such as location-awareness and location-dependencies. The authors identify five basic location-dependent control-flow patterns that can be captured in process models. And the authors identify location-dependencies in several existing case studies of business processes.

Research limitations/implications

The authors focus exclusively on the control-flow perspective of process models. Further work needs to extend the research to address location-dependencies in process data or resources. Further empirical work is needed to explore determinants and consequences of the modeling of location-dependencies.

Originality/value

As existing literature mostly focusses on the broad context of business process, location in process modeling still is treated as “second class citizen” in theory and in practice. This paper discusses the vital role of location-dependencies within business processes. The proposed five basic location-dependent control-flow patterns are novel and useful to explain location-dependency in business process models. They provide a conceptual basis for further exploration of location-awareness in the management of business processes.

Details

Business Process Management Journal, vol. 20 no. 6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1463-7154

Keywords

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