Complex Systems Informatics and Modeling Quarterly
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Selected Topics on Business Informatics: Editorial Introduction to Issue 13 of CSIMQ
Get PDFBusiness Informatics is the scientific discipline targeting information processes and related phenomena in their socio-economical business context, including companies, organisations, administrations and society in general. As a field of study, it endeavours to take a systematic and analytic approach in adopting a multi-disciplinary orientation that draws theories and practices from the fields of management science, organisational science, computer science, systems engineering, information systems, information management, social science, and economics information science.The objective of this thematic issue is to bring attention to actual research on Business Informatics, as being publicized on the 19th IEEE Conference on Business Informatics (CBI 2017), July 24-27, 2017, in Thessaloniki, Greece. The conference created a productive forum for researchers and practitioners from the fields that contribute to the construction, use and maintenance of information systems and the organisational context in which they are embedded. This issue of CSIMQ comprises extended version of four CBI papers and one external article
Selected Topics on Advances in Capability-Oriented Information Systems Development: Editorial Introduction to Issue 10 of CSIMQ
Get PDFModern organizations need to be sustainable in the presence of dynamically changing business conditions, which require from Information Systems (IS) to address complex challenges for being able to support organizations acting in varying business conditions – changing customer demands, new legislations, new customers, and emerging alliances. From a technical perspective, the gap between business requirements and supporting IS is still present, mostly due to the fact that current IS development approaches operate with artifacts defined on a relatively low abstraction level. To go beyond the state of the art, IS development frameworks used by enterprises need to be structured for solving emerging problems, and enterprises need to have efficient methods for the use of these frameworks to deliver the right IS solutions just-in-time and just-enough. The notion of capability emerged in the beginning of the nineties in the context of competence-based management, military frameworks, and developing organization’s competitive advantage – linguistically, it means the ability or qualities necessary to do something.
Selected Topics on Complex Systems Informatics: Editorial Introduction to Issue 12 of CSIMQ
Get PDFModeling is an important contribution to dealing with complexity in development and engineering processes. A model is a generalized representation of a piece of reality, with only those real‐world properties included which are relevant to the purpose of modelling. Models don’t remove the complexity of the real world but help to understand it and to design and develop solutions. All articles in this issue are in some respect concerned with models or modelling.The articles in this issue also reflect recent trends in industry and society, such as digitization and industry 4.0, and show that these trends will not necessarily reduce complexity in systems but rather require the combination of proven approaches, such as modelling, and new methods for managing this complexity
Automated Probabilistic System Architecture Analysis in the Multi-Attribute Prediction Language (MAPL): Iteratively Developed using Multiple Case Studies
Get PDFThe Multi-Attribute Prediction Language (MAPL), an analysis metamodel for non-functional qualities of system architectures, is introduced. MAPL features automate analysis in five non-functional areas: service cost, service availability, data accuracy, application coupling, and application size. In addition, MAPL explicitly includes utility modeling to make trade-offs between the qualities. The article introduces how each of the five non-functional qualities are modeled and quantitatively analyzed based on the ArchiMate standard for enterprise architecture modeling and the previously published Predictive, Probabilistic Architecture Modeling Framework, building on the well-known UML and OCL formalisms. The main contribution of MAPL lies in the probabilistic use of multi-attribute utility theory for the trade-off analysis of the non-functional properties. Additionally, MAPL proposes novel model-based analyses of several non-functional attributes. We also report how MAPL has iteratively been developed using multiple case studies
The OntoREA Accounting Model: Ontology-based Modeling of the Accounting Domain
Get PDFMcCarthy developed a framework for modeling the economic rationale of different business transactions along the enterprise value chain described in his seminal article “The REA Accounting Model – A Generalized Framework for Accounting Systems in a Shared Data Environment” Originally, the REA accounting model was specified in the entity-relationship (ER) language. Later on other languages – especially in form of generic data models and UML class models (UML language) – were used. Recently, the OntoUML language was developed by Guizzardi and used by Gailly et al. for a metaphysical reengineering of the REA enterprise ontology. Although the REA accounting model originally addressed the accounting domain, it most successfuly is applied as a reference framework for the conceptual modeling of enterprise systems. The primary research objective of this article is to anchor the REA-based models more deeply in the accounting domain. In order to achieve this objective, essential primitives of the REA model are identified and conceptualized in the OntoUML language within the Asset Liability Equity (ALE) context of the traditional ALE accounting domain
Modeling and Recognizing Policy Conflicts with Resource Access Requests on Protected Health Information
Get PDFThis article discusses potential clashes between different types of security policies that regulate resource access requests on clinical patient data in hospitals by employees. Attribute-based Access Control (ABAC) is proposed as a proper means for such regulation. A proper representation of ABAC policies must include a handling of policy attributes among different policy types. In this article, we propose a semantic policy model with predefined policy conflict categories. A conformance verification function detects erroneous, clashing or mutually susceptible rules early during the policy planning phase. The model and conflicts are used in a conceptual application environment and evaluated in a technical experiment during an interoperability test event
Knocking on Industry’s Door: Needs in Product-Cost Optimization in the Early Product Life Cycle Stages
Get PDFWhile theoretical concepts for product-costing methodologies have evolved over the decades, little emphasis has been placed on their integration into modern information systems. During a co-innovation workshop at SAP SE, we initiated our collaborative research with selected large-scale enterprises from the discrete manufacturing industry. Moreover, we conducted interviews with business experts to gain a sophisticated understanding of the cost-optimization process itself. As a result, we present an exemplary optimization process with an emphasis on the specific characteristics of the product development stage. Based upon this example, we identified associated deficits in information system support. No current software fulfills the enterprises’ requirements regarding cost optimization in the early stages of a product’s life cycle. Thus, the respective processes lack integration in corporate environments. Taking this on, our article compiles detailed problem identification and, moreover, suggests approaches to overcome these hurdles
Holistic Layer of the Enterprise Architecture on the Basis of Process-Driven Organization
Get PDFGrowing complexity of the enterprise ecosystem along with the existence of legacy approaches in the organization can result in a number of challenges when maintaining the solid baseline of its information assets. The digital industry has, over past two decades, passed through rapid evolution triggered both by availability of new technologies, and business as well as operating and funding models. These enablers have direct impact on the way that organizations design and execute their business processes in order to maintain the alignment between their capabilities and targets. This trend implies that enterprises and organizations need to remain flexible by maintaining the alignment of their business and their infrastructure in a dynamically changing and integrated ecosystem. It has been widely recognized that the enterprise architecture as well as the process driven approaches provide tools used by organizations to explain how business, resources and other elements within the organization are related to each other. This article discusses the role, and associated value, that the enterprise architecture and process driven approach have when describing what constitutes the enterprise. At the same time it elaborates on principles and constructs of the model of the holistic layer of the enterprise architecture on the basis of process driven approach. The proposed model aims to combine a unified view on infrastructure and behavior of the enterprise with lean principles in order to identify and focus on key elements of the enterprise
Organizational Learning Supported by Reference Architecture Models: Industry 4.0 Laboratory Study
Get PDFThe wave of the fourth industrial revolution (Industry 4.0) is bringing a new vision of the manufacturing industry. In manufacturing, one of the buzzwords of the moment is "Smart production". Smart production involves manufacturing equipment with many sensors that can generate and transmit large amounts of data. These data and information from manufacturing operations are however not shared in the organization. Therefore the organization is not using them to learn and improve their operations. To address this problem, the authors implemented in an Industry 4.0 laboratory an instance of an emerging technical standard specific for the manufacturing industry. Global manufacturing experts consider the Reference Architecture Model Industry 4.0 (RAMI4.0) as one of the corner stones for the implementation of Industry 4.0. The instantiation contributed to organizational learning in the laboratory by collecting and sharing up-to-date information concerning manufacturing equipment. This article discusses and generalizes the experience and outlines future research directions
A Quality-Driven Methodology for Information Systems Integration
Get PDFInformation systems integration is an essential instrument for organizations to attain advantage in today’s growing and fast changing business and technology landscapes. Integration solutions generate added value by combining the functionality and services of heterogeneous and diverse systems. Existing integration environments tend to rely heavily on technical, platform-dependent skills. Consequently, the solutions that they enable are not optimally aligned with the envisioned business goals of the organization. Furthermore, the gap between the goals and the solutions complicates the task of evaluating the quality of integration solutions. To address these challenges, we propose a quality-driven, model-driven methodology for designing and developing integration solutions. The methodology spans organizational and systems design details, providing a holistic view of the integration solution and its underlying business goals. A multi-view meta-model provides the basis for the integration design. Quality factors that affect various aspects of the integration solution guide and inform the progress of the methodology. An example business case is presented to demonstrate the application of the methodology