The concepts of processes and services can be used to structure both businesses and software systems. From a business perspective, the use of processes promises efficient management of organizations. From a software perspective, executable process descriptions provide a way to structure software systems according to the business process the systems should support. Furthermore, the concept of software services allows systems to be partitioned in a modular fashion, thereby enabling large-scale system integration on a technical level. By combining process descriptions with software services in service-based processes, it is feasible to address both business and more technical software needs. Aligning the business and software perspectives of processes and software services is, however, challenging, since implemented executable processes and software services need to cater for operational and strategic business needs as well as existing legacy software systems. In this thesis, several instruments are presented that aim at aiding the design and evolution of service-based processes. The aligning of operational business and software perspectives on process descriptions is addressed by the introduction of business and technical process model levels. These levels can be aligned by the use of a set of model transformations and associated transformation rules. Furthermore, the aligning is aided by introducing means for achieving flexibility on both the business and technical model levels. The development of service-based processes from a strategic business point of view is aided by the introduction of novel models and methods for goal-based design of software services. Taken together, the instruments can be used for the design and evolution of service-based processes. / QC 20100810 / REMS / Serviam

Syftet med denna uppsats är att skapa förståelse för, varför företag väljer att outsourca sin ekonomifunktion utomlands, samt identifiera eventuella oförutsedda kostnader. För att illustrera detta genomförs en fallstudie på företaget Dell. Våra data har vi inhämtat genom en kvalitativ undersökning i form av en fallstudie på företaget Dell. Vi har valt att genomföra en längre intervju med två nyckelpersoner på det svenska kontoret i Solna. I teoriavsnittet presenteras litteratur och artiklar om vad outsourcing är och innebär samt forskningsartiklar gjorda om varför företag outsourcar sin ekonomifunktion och vad de önskar uppnå. Vidare presenteras även artiklar om den skepticism som stundtals finns kring outsourcing och dess fördelar. Vår undersökning baseras på den intervju vi har gjort med Dells nordiska redovisnings chef samt den person som är Nordic Credit Manager och därmed har nära kontakt med outsourcingparten i Riga. Vi kommer genom vår studie fram till att företag främst outsourcar ekonomifunktionen i syfte att nå kostnadsbesparingar via ökad effektivitet och standardisering av processer samt lägre personalkostnader, men att även strävan efter expertis gör outsourcing till något eftersträvansvärt. Vi finner att outsourcing av ekonomifunktionen innebär kostnader i form av risken för att företaget väljer fel utomstående part, högre personalomsättning, kulturella och språkliga barriärer, minskad flexibilitet och initiativtagande. Vissa av kostnaderna är specifikt kopplade till outsourcing utomlands. Sammantaget kommer dessa kostnader att minska det förväntade positiva utfallet av outsourcingen av ekonomifunktionen i olika påtaglig omfattning.

The literature emphasizes the important role played by stakeholder perceptions in explaining success and failure of IT-enabled change efforts. However, our knowledge of how stakeholder perceptions evolve and interact with outcomes during change processes is still limited. Consequently, this study adapts technological frames of reference (TFR) to explore the dynamics of stakeholder perceptions based on action research into an IT-enabled sales process innovation project at VoiceTech. The study attempts to answer the following research questions: How can TFR be adapted and applied to support action research into IT-enabled change efforts? What was the role of stakeholder perceptions during IT-enabled sales process innovation at VoiceTech? How do stakeholder perceptions evolve and interact with outcomes during IT-enabled change efforts? The study develops TFR as a theory for investigating stakeholder perceptions during IT-enabled change and it offers a process model of how frame interactions, incongruencies, and inconsistencies contribute to frame shifts and change outcomes over time. In addition, the study provides detailed insights into how the IT-enabled sales process innovation at VoiceTech shaped and was shaped by shifts in stakeholder perceptions over time.

Information demand is a part of comprehensive business logistics which encompass logistics of information. The demand for information has provided a unifying framework for different needs on enterprise modeling. Hence, the problems organizations faces relating to flow and distribution has lead to the development of various framework for analyzing information demand and this is guided by a set of rules, methods and even a unified representation. This thesis work defines a specification for enterprise Information Demand Context model using XPDL as the language of construct. The paper gives reasons why XPDL was preferred for such a representation and show how mapping is carried out from the constructs of notations to its associated XPDL specifications, so that when we are defining a representation we are as well defining its meta model. The resulting specification is presented in such a way that it should be able to give a flexible, logical and more defined structure.

¡@¡@Since 1990s, rapidly changing business environments such as information technology advancements and global logistical competitions have brought enterprises many challenges. Recently, due to its rapid economic grow, China has become a ¡§world factory¡¨ but it will also cause the steel industry to face the problem of sterner challenges and crises for coping the huge steel demand. Most enterprises may make efforts to retain their competency and keep abreast of market status through so-called business process reengineering (BPR). Under such circumstances, it becomes very important for steel industry to integrate their business process and core competence to improve the competitive advantages. ¡@¡@Through literature review, in-depth interviews with experts and implementing experience of BPR project in steel plant, a reference model was developed to examine the core competence and facilitate the BPR. Some cases from domestic and oversea steel companies with successful experience in BPR project have been studied for validation of the model. And the result shows that this validated model can be used for the steel industry to implement their BPR projects. ¡@¡@In this study, it is also indicated that the core competence, composed of managerial system, physical system, skill and values of behavior, is very crucial to successfully fulfill the business process reengineering. The BPR project needs CEO¡¦s full support. The practical technical system and the skill of employees may speed up to build and maintain the new process. However if the new system is deemed to likely violate the rights and interests of employees, they may resist to reform. Therefore the learning organization in managerial system should guide the employees and communicate occasionally with their employees and with forming a value and a paradigm of common behavior in the company, the BPR could be actually carried out.

The cost and effort estimation of projects depend on software size. A software product size is needed at as early a phase of the project as possible. Conventional Early Functional Size Estimation methods generate size at the early phase but result in subjectivity and unrepeatability due to manual calculation. On the other hand, automated Functional Size Measurement calculation approaches require constructs which are available in considerably late software development phases. In this study we developed an approach called e-Cosmic to calculate and automate the functional size measurement based on the business processes. Functions and input and output relationship types of each function are identified in the business process model. The size of each relationship type is determined by assigning appropriate data movements based on the COSMIC Measurement Manual. Then, relationship type size is aggregated to produce the size of each function. The size of the software product is the sum of the size of these functions. Automation of this process based on business process model is performed by developing a script in the ARIS tool concept. Three case studies were conducted to validate the proposed functional size estimation method (e-Cosmic). The size of the products in the case studies are measured manually with COSMIC FSM (Abran et al, 2007) as well as using a conventional early estimation method, called Early and Quick COSMIC FFP. We compared the results of different approaches and discussed the usability of e-Cosmic based on the findings.

The majority of organizations make their business processes explicit to improve them. Defining business processes manually and modeling them are two alternatives utilized for this purpose. Meanwhile, organizations have quality management systems which are frequently shaped by frameworks. The most commonly used process improvement frameworks in the IT sector are ITIL, Cobit, CMMI and ISO 9001. These frameworks indicate the necessity of process documentation and ISO 9001 addresses the name &ldquo / Quality Manual&rdquo / for this purpose. In this thesis, an automated tool is developed for quality manual generation from predetermined business process models. In addition, a case study is performed by means of a systematic approach and its results were discussed with the findings of structured interviews. The aim of the study is to reduce the effort and time required for quality manual preparation and merge quality management activities with process modeling by means of process documentation.

Business process modeling has become a common need for organizations. Therefore process quality is also having an important role for the organizations. The most of the quality studies are based on cost and time which can be analyzed during or after the execution of the business processes. There are also quality measures which help analyzing measures before the execution of the business processes. This type of measures can give early feedback about the processes. There are three frameworks defined in the literature for a more comprehensive measurement. One of the frameworks is adapted from software programs and it aims to enable process design to be less error-prone, understandable and maintainable. The second framework is adapted from object-oriented software designs and it provides object-oriented view to the design of the business process. The last framework is adapted from ISO/IEC Software Product Quality enabling to measure the quality of process itself rather than the design. By conducting a case study, the measures defined in the frameworks are explored in terms of applicability, automation potential and required time and effort on a set of business process model. As a result of this study it is observed that measurement takes time and requires effort and is always error-prone. Therefore, an approach is implemented by automating the measures which have automation potential, in order to decrease the required time and effort and also to increase the accuracy of the measurement. The second case study is then conducted on a set of another business process models in order to validate the approach.

Process and data are equally important for business process management. Process data is especially relevant in the context of automated business processes, process controlling, and representation of organizations' core assets. One can discover many process modeling languages, each having a specific set of data modeling capabilities and the level of data awareness. The level of data awareness and data modeling capabilities vary significantly from one language to another. This paper evaluates several process modeling languages with respect to the role of data. To find a common ground for comparison, we develop a framework, which systematically organizes process- and data-related aspects of the modeling languages elaborating on the data aspects. Once the framework is in place, we compare twelve process modeling languages against it. We generalize the results of the comparison and identify clusters of similar languages with respect to data awareness. / Prozesse und Daten sind gleichermaßen wichtig für das Geschäftsprozessmanagement. Prozessdaten sind dabei insbesondere im Kontext der Automatisierung von Geschäftsprozessen, dem Prozesscontrolling und der Repräsentation der Vermögensgegenstände von Organisationen relevant. Es existieren viele Prozessmodellierungssprachen, von denen jede die Darstellung von Daten durch eine fest spezifizierte Menge an Modellierungskonstrukten ermöglicht. Allerdings unterscheiden sich diese Darstellungenund damit der Grad der Datenmodellierung stark untereinander. Dieser Report evaluiert verschiedene Prozessmodellierungssprachen bezüglich der Unterstützung von Datenmodellierung. Als einheitliche Grundlage entwickeln wir ein Framework, welches prozess- und datenrelevante Aspekte systematisch organisiert. Die Kriterien legen dabei das Hauptaugenmerk auf die datenrelevanten Aspekte. Nach Einführung des Frameworks vergleichen wir zwölf Prozessmodellierungssprachen gegen dieses. Wir generalisieren die Erkenntnisse aus den Vergleichen und identifizieren Cluster bezüglich des Grades der Datenmodellierung, in welche die einzelnen Sprachen eingeordnet werden.

Component base software development methodology is the most important technological revolution of software industry in the past few years. Straightly to push forward software industry from taking handiwork as principle thing, gradually to get into automation assisting tool procreation¡¦s automation industry. Component base software development technology give way to business information system easy fabricate flexibly. System developer may assemble software components depending on user requirement. We can increase or subtract system components to modulate a section of system capability any time. But do not influence whole system, only contained a part of system components. This thesis brings up an object-process methodology to apply develop a business distributed information system. Using object-process methodology to find business objects from business process. We can divide system analysis into two parts and eight steps, to analyze the user requirement than to design information system to guide stable software objects and system framework. Through object-process business system helps we establish the model of the complex business system, mapping the real world activity or the abstract conception into system model. We can analyze and design distributed objects efficiently for distributed operation system environment needed. Proceeding to the next step, to transform software model and to seal up distributed component object module (DCOM), than to put DCOM into system application layer. Let the business information system flexibly and ample fitting in user requirement.