Complex Systems Informatics and Modeling Quarterly
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A Framework for Automatic IT Architecture Modeling: Applying Truth Discovery
Get PDFModeling IT architecture is a complex, time consuming, and error prone task. However, many systems produce information that can be used for automating modeling. Early studies show that this is a feasible approach if we can overcome certain obstacles. Often more than one source is needed in order to cover the data requirements of an IT architecture model; and the use of multiple sources means that heterogeneous data needs to be merged. Moreover, the same collection of data might be useful for creating more than one kind of models for decision support. IT architecture is constantly changing and data sources provide information that can deviate from reality to some degree. There can be problems with varying accuracy (e.g. actuality and coverage), representation (e.g. data syntax and file format), or inconsistent semantics. Thus, integration of heterogeneous data from different sources needs to handle data quality problems of the sources. This can be done by using probabilistic models. In the field of truth discovery, these models have been developed to track data source trustworthiness in order to help solving conflicts while making quality issues manageable for automatic modeling. We build upon previous research in modeling automation and propose a framework for merging data from multiple sources with a truth discovery algorithm to create multiple IT architecture models. The usefulness of the proposed framework is demonstrated in a study where models using three tools are created, namely; Archi, securiCAD, and EMFTA
Conceptual Modeling Education as a “Design Problem”
Get PDFThis article frames Conceptual Modeling education as a design problem, in the sense of the Design Science research framework, motivated by student preconceptions and oversimplifications causing a gap between how the discipline is perceived at the bachelor level and the holistic understanding of model value that is required for research work. The treatment to this design problem must comprise teaching approaches and artifacts capable of positioning Conceptual Modeling as a standalone discipline having a value proposition for any application domain, rather than a technique subordinated to other disciplines. The underpinning thesis is that modeling languages should be primarily understood as purposeful knowledge schemas that can be subjected to agile adaptations in support of model-driven systems or knowledge processes, by analogy to how a database schema is evolved in response to changing requirements of a data-driven system or data analytics needs. This thesis is supported by enablers provided by the Open Models Laboratory and the Agile Modeling Method Engineering framework – resources that support the development of treatments to the design problem framed by the article
Selected Topics on Socio-technical Perspective in Information Systems: Editorial Introduction to Issue 18 of CSIMQ
Get PDFThis thematic issue of the Complex Systems Informatics and Modeling Quarterly journal is dedicated to using a socio-technical perspective in the Information Systems (IS) field. It contains a selection of extended papers presented at STPIS'18 – 4th International Workshop on Socio-Technical Perspective in IS Development held on June 12, 2018 in Tallinn, Estonia. The articles presented in this thematic issue contain at least 30% new material compared to the initial papers. After the extension, all articles went through two rounds of reviews to ensure the quality of the papers published in this issue. STPIS papers cover both theoretical and practical aspects of using a socio-technical perspective in IS, which is reflected in the current issue that contains both theoretically and practically oriented papers
A Socio-technical Systems Approach to Design and Support Systems Thinking in Cybersecurity and Risk Management Education
Get PDFCybersecurity decisions are made across a range of social, technical, economic, regulatory and political domains. There is a gap between what companies and institutions plan to do while developing their internal IS-related policies and what should be done according to a multi-stakeholder system perspective in this area. Our task as researchers is to bridge this gap by offering potential solutions. The aim of our work is to promote the usage of the socio-technical systems (STS) approach to support the emerging role of systems thinking in cybersecurity education, using simulation as a supporting tool for learning. Meanwhile, new trends in cybersecurity curricula suggest an important shift toward new thinking approaches such as adversarial and systems thinking. We explored individuals’ adversarial and systems thinking skills in an open agent-based simulated environment and subsequently assessed the impact based on a participant survey. We discuss these results and point to directions for further investigation. The second contribution of the article is the provision of a tool for developing target users’ skills in making quantitative risk decisions and giving them a deeper understanding of the importance and use of key indices in the cyber risk management process
Evaluation of Adblock Software Usage
Get PDFThe article shows the main factors of adblocking software usage. The study was based on data obtained by a web questionnaire. The research was focused on evaluation of adblocking software usage factors in five categories: (1) gender, age, and education; (2) use of advertising and sources of knowledge about advertising; (3) technical and social reasons for blocking online advertisements; (4) usage of an adblock-wall; and (5) type of online advertisement. An evaluation of adblock usage factors revealed four main technical reasons for adblock usage connected with website technology and web development problems – interruption, amount of ads, speed, and security; and one social reason for adblock usage, namely, the problem of privacy
Automated Creation and Provisioning of Decision Information Packages for the Smart Factory
Get PDFIn recent years, Industry 4.0 emerges as a new trend, enabling the integration of data-intensive cyber physical systems, Internet of Things, and mobile applications, into production environments. Even though Industry 4.0 concentrates on automated engineering and manufacturing processing, the human actor is still important for decision making in the product lifecycle process. To support correct and efficient decision making, human actors have to be provided with relevant data depending on the current context. This data needs to be retrieved from distributed sources like bill of material systems, product data management and manufacturing execution systems, holding product model and factory model. In this article, we address this issue by introducing the concept of decision information packages, which enable to compose relevant engineering data for a specific context from distributed data sources. To determine relevant data, we specify a context-aware engineering data model and corresponding operators. To realize our approach, we provide an architecture and a prototypical implementation based on requirements of a real case scenario. This article is a revised and selected version of the previous work
Selected Topics in Management and Modeling of Complex Systems: Editorial Introduction to Issue 16 of CSIMQ
Get PDFThe 16th issue of CSIMQ presents four articles that cover a wide range of research topics. The topics of this issue start with psychological aspects of sustainable behavior change within organizations while new technologies are introduced into a company. The range of topics ends with the discussion of specific algorithms that allow entity clustering for Big Data analysis. The goal of these algorithms is the identification of different notations of references that refer to the same real-world object. This entity resolution is also called dedublication. Additionally, an approach for modelling enterprise architecture visualizations is discussed. It is used to specify and develop an architecture cockpit for a company from the financial sector. Within the range of topics is also a paper about the concepts of shared spaces as basis for building business process support systems. In the paper, a generic model is suggested that supports the comparison, analysis, and design of business process support systems
Building a Process Driven Organization with the Process Normalization Technique
Get PDFDespite the importance, the methodological standards for business process modeling are still very much insufficient. One of the most important aspects which must be covered with the process models is essential unity of object oriented and process oriented views of a business system. To achieve such unity, this article introduces a process normalization technique as part of the Methodology for Modeling and Analysis of Business Processes (MMABP). This technique is freely inspired by the famous 'ancient' Normalization of Data Structures technique which we regard as relevant and correct because of the essential unity of objects and processes in the business system. At the same time it can be seen that harmonizing the structure of processes with the (conceptual) structure of the Real World directly fulfills the objective. The goal of this article is to illustrate the steps of process normalization with examples. Important connected problems of structural algorithmic thinking, as well as other ways of manifesting the previously mentioned essential object-processes unity in the business system, are also discussed in the article.
Modeling Interactive Enterprise Architecture Visualizations: An Extended Architecture Description
Get PDFEnterprise Architectures consist of a multitude of architecture elements, which relate in manifold ways to each other. Due to the high number of relationships between these elements, architectural analysis mechanisms are essential for all stakeholders to keep track and to work out relevant model characteristics. In practice EAs are often analyzed using visualizations by hand. However, the visualizations are often static and there are only few interaction possibilities. As a result, new visualizations have to be created or configured by experts if information demands change. In addition, hardly any tools are used for analysis of complex model characteristics. In this article we introduce an extended conceptualization of the architecture description that defines the structure of interactive visualizations and the integration of further tools to flexibly respond to the information demands of stakeholders. In addition, we develop a so-called Architecture Cockpit that realizes the extended conceptualization in a prototype. At the end we demonstrate and evaluate our approach through a practical test in a company in the finance and insurance industry
Structured Shared Spaces as a Basis for Building Business Process Support Systems: A Generic Model and Analysis of Examples
Get PDFThough the concept of shared spaces had been known in Groupware and Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW) for quite a while, it did not become popular until the arrival of the Internet and social software. Implicitly, the concept of shared spaces has penetrated many IT-areas, including the area of Business Process Management. Though shared spaces are used in many systems and tools, like Google Drive and Projectplace, there is a lack of research investigating this usage in a generic way. The article aims to fill this gap by introducing a generic model of a Business Process Support (BPS) system based on shared space that supports the comparison, analysis and design of BPS systems. In addition, the article goes in more details on one design issue – the structuring of shared spaces. This is done by analyzing and comparing two different BPS systems that exploit the concept of shared spaces, though implicitly. These systems use different approaches to shared space structuring. The first one organizes the information by grouping similar types of items without regard to the flow of activities in a business process, while the other organizes the information around groups of activities that are usually completed as a block. Which model to choose in a particular situation depends on the characteristics of the business process and its participants. In order to facilitate this choice, the article offers a number of guidelines derived from the experience of using the two BPS systems in practice. The article also discusses in what circumstances BPS systems with shared spaces are preferable to traditional workflow BPS systems