Companies develop process models to explicitly describe their business operations. In the same time, business operations, business processes, must adhere to various types of compliance requirements. Regulations, e.g., Sarbanes Oxley Act of 2002, internal policies, best practices are just a few sources of compliance requirements. In some cases, non-adherence to compliance requirements makes the organization subject to legal punishment. In other cases, non-adherence to compliance leads to loss of competitive advantage and thus loss of market share. Unlike the classical domain-independent behavioral correctness of business processes, compliance requirements are domain-specific. Moreover, compliance requirements change over time. New requirements might appear due to change in laws and adoption of new policies. Compliance requirements are offered or enforced by different entities that have different objectives behind these requirements. Finally, compliance requirements might affect different aspects of business processes, e.g., control flow and data flow. As a result, it is infeasible to hard-code compliance checks in tools. Rather, a repeatable process of modeling compliance rules and checking them against business processes automatically is needed. This thesis provides a formal approach to support process design-time compliance checking. Using visual patterns, it is possible to model compliance requirements concerning control flow, data flow and conditional flow rules. Each pattern is mapped into a temporal logic formula. The thesis addresses the problem of consistency checking among various compliance requirements, as they might stem from divergent sources. Also, the thesis contributes to automatically check compliance requirements against process models using model checking. We show that extra domain knowledge, other than expressed in compliance rules, is needed to reach correct decisions. In case of violations, we are able to provide a useful feedback to the user. The feedback is in the form of parts of the process model whose execution causes the violation. In some cases, our approach is capable of providing automated remedy of the violation. / Firmen entwickeln Prozessmodelle um ihre Geschäftstätigkeit explizit zu beschreiben. Geschäftsprozesse müssen verschiedene Arten von Compliance-Anforderungen einhalten. Solche Compliance-Anforderungen entstammen einer Vielzahl von Quellen, z.B. Verordnung wie dem Sarbanes Oxley Act von 2002, interne Richtlinien und Best Practices. Die Nichteinhaltung von Compliance-Anforderungen kann zu gesetzlichen Strafen oder dem Verlust von Wettbewerbsvorteilen und somit dem Verlust von Marktanteilen führen. Im Gegensatz zum klassischen, domänen-unabhängigen Begriff der Korrektheit von Geschäftsprozessen, sind Compliance-Anforderungen domain-spezifisch und ändern sich im Laufe der Zeit. Neue Anforderungen resultieren aus neuen Gesetzen und der Einführung neuer Unternehmensrichtlinien. Aufgrund der Vielzahl der Quellen für Compliance-Anforderungen, können sie unterschiedliche Ziele verfolgen und somit widersprüchliche Aussagen treffen. Schließlich betreffen Compliance-Anforderungen verschiedene Aspekte von Geschäftsprozessen, wie Kontrollfluss- und Datenabhängigkeiten. Auf Grund dessen können Compliance-Prüfungen nicht direkt Hard-coded werden. Vielmehr ist ein Prozess der wiederholten Modellierung von Compliance-Regeln und ihrer anschließenden automatischen Prüfung gegen die Geschäftsprozesse nötig. Diese Dissertation stellt einen formalen Ansatz zur Überprüfung der Einhaltung von Compliance-Regeln während der Spezifikation von Geschäftsprozessen vor. Mit visuellen Mustern ist es möglich, Compliance-Regeln hinsichtlich Kontrollfluss- und Datenabhängigkeiten sowie bedingte Regeln zu spezifizieren. Jedes Muster wird in eine Formel der temporalen Logik abgebildet. Die Dissertation behandelt das Problem der Konsistenzprüfung zwischen verschiedenen Compliance-Anforderungen, wie sie sich aus unterschiedlichen Quellen ergeben können. Ebenfalls zeigt diese Dissertation, wie Compliance-Regeln gegen die Geschäftsprozesse automatisch mittels Model Checking geprüft werden. Es wird aufgezeigt, dass zusätzliche Domänen-Kenntnisse notwendig sind, um richtige Entscheidungen zu treffen. Der vorgestelle Ansatz ermöglicht nützliches Feedback für Modellierer im Fall eines Compliance-Verstoßes. Das Feedback wird in Form von Teilen des Prozessmodells gegeben, deren Ausführung die Verletzung verursacht. In einigen Fällen ist der vorgestellte Ansatz in der Lage, den Compliance-Verstoß automatisch zu beheben.

<p>In the last 50 years, a considerable amount of research workhas been completed in the mathematical system theory and theoryof control. Implementation of the results from this researchinto practice has drastically decreased the production costs.Most production processes are highly automated, and the use ofrobots in industry is growing. As far as office, or businessprocesses are concerned, the situation is quite different.Though the office workers and sales personnel have obtainedmuch help from the modern computers, the office and salesprocesses are far behind the production processes on the levelof automation. The computers are used in the office mainly tohelp in performing various activities, e.g., to write a letter,to print an invoice, to complete a transaction, etc. Thecontrol of the business processes in the office remains, to alarge extent, manual. There is a lot to gain if the controlover business processes could be automated, at leastpartially.</p><p>The material presented in this thesis is aimed to supportthe following hypothesis: "<i>The ideas worked out in the Mathematical system theory formodeling and controlling physical processes can be successfullyused for modeling and controlling business processes</i>." Oneof the main ideas of mathematical system theory is to considera process as a set of valid trajectories in a state space, andthis idea is the keystone for the thesis. The thesis startswith reformulating the state-oriented approach for the domainof business processes to show what kind of sate space can beused in this domain. First, the approach is introducedinformally by means of an example. Next, a possibleformalization adjusted to the properties of business processesis discussed. Then, experimental evidences that the methodsuggested in the thesis can be used in practice are presented.The suggested method is also compared with other methods ofbusiness process modeling to find out the areas where it hasadvantages over the other methods. In the conclusion, theresults are summarized, and plansfor the future are drawn.</p><p>Most of the material included in the thesis has beenpublished and presented at international conferences. Thecontribution of this thesis consists in organizing the materialin support of the main hypothesis.</p>

Η εργασία αυτή παρουσιάζει την Βusiness-to-Βusiness πλευρά των αλυσίδων εφοδιασμού, εξετάζοντας τα χαρακτηριστικά των e-Επιχειρείν σχέσεων και της σημασίας τους για την εφαρμογή τεχνολογιών e-Επιχειρείν, εστιάζοντας όμως στο θέμα της ενοποίησης των e-Διεργασιών και των εμποδίων προς την κατεύθυνση αυτή. Συζητούνται επιλεκτικά μερικά από τα ευρέως υιοθετημένα πρότυπα, έτσι ώστε να γίνουν κατανοητοί οι τρόποι με τους οποίους οι μεγάλες βιομηχανικές πρωτοβουλίες προσπαθούν να αντιμετωπίσουν το γεγονός ότι το e-Επιχειρείν περιβάλλον αντανακλά τους ιδιοσυγκρασιακούς τρόπους με τους οποίους οι επιχειρηματικές διεργασίες λειτουργούν μέσα σε έναν οργανισμό και δημιουργούν ασυνέπειες στην διαλειτουργικότητά τους. Εξετάζεται το πρόβλημα της Ενοποίησης Επιχειρηματικών Διεργασιών και γίνεται εμφανές πως είναι πιθανώς αδύνατο αυτό να αντιμετωπιστεί στο σημείο αυτό στην πλήρη έκτασή του. Για τον σκοπό αυτό, οι τεχνικές και επιχειρηματικές πλευρές της ενοποίησης αποσυνδέονται και εξετάζονται ξεχωριστά, με έμφαση στην επιχειρηματική πλευρά, καθώς διαπιστώνεται έλλειψη λύσεων στον τομέα αυτό. Η μετακίνηση αυτή του βάρους προς την επιχειρηματική πλευρά του προβλήματος οδηγεί στο θέμα των σημασιολογικών ασυνεπειών κατά την ανταλλαγή πληροφορίας μεταξύ επιχειρηματικών διεργασιών, τόσο σε επίπεδο δεδομένων όσο και διεργασιών. Για το σκοπό αυτό, παρουσιάζεται ένα Μοντέλο Συνεργατικών Διεργασιών – Collaborative Process Model (CPM) που προσπαθεί να αντιμετωπίσει την έλλειψη ενός κοινού μοντέλου αναφοράς για ανόμοια μοντέλα διεργασιών, στοχεύοντας στο να επιτρέψει την ευθυγράμμιση ανόμοιων επιχειρηματικών μοντέλων. Τα λειτουργικά και εννοιολογικά χαρακτηριστικά του μοντέλου αυτού συζητούνται και στην συνέχεια διατυπώνονται και σε τυπική μορφή, επιδεικνύοντας τον τρόπο με τον οποίο μια πιο αφαιρετική προσέγγιση στην περιγραφή των διεργασιών μπορεί να χρησιμοποιηθεί για να τους επιτρέψει να συνεργαστούν στη δημιουργία μεγαλύτερων δομών όπως οι αλυσίδες διεργασιών. Στη συνέχεια παρουσιάζεται η εφαρμογή του CPM σε ένα επιχειρηματικό πεδίο ως μια μελέτη της εφαρμοσιμότητας και λειτουργικότητας του μοντέλου. / This work discusses the Business-to-Business aspect of supply chains, examining the characteristics of the e-Business relationships and their relevance for the application of e-Business technology, but focusing on the issue of the integration of e-Business Processes and the impediments in this effort. A selection of widely adopted business standards is being presented in order to get a glimpse of the ways that major industrial efforts are trying to deal with the fact that the e-Business environment reflects the idiosyncratic ways that the business processes work within an organization, and create inconsistencies in their interoperation. The problem of Business Process Integration is being discussed, and what becomes evident during that discussion is that the problem is probably impossible to handle at this point in its full extent. For this purpose, the technical- and business-related aspects of the integration are decoupled and examined in isolation, with the emphasis put on the business aspect, due to the lack of solutions for this part of the problem. Since the focus is moved towards the business level issues then this inadvertently leads to the problem of the semantic inconsistencies during the exchange of information between processes, both on data and process level. For this purpose, a Collaborative Process Model - CPM is presented that attempts to address the lack of a common reference model for the description of business information and business logic, aiming to enable the alignment of disparate process models. The functional and conceptual characteristics of the Model are being discussed and consequently formally defined, showing how a more abstract approach in the description of the processes can be utilized in order to allow them to cooperate in the creation of bigger structures like process chains. Following on, the application of CPM to a business domain is presented as a proof of concept of its applicability and functionality.

The major problem addressed in this thesis is the definition of a new SPLE methodology that covers both phases of the SPLE process and focuses on the derivation of behavioral models of SPL products. In Chapter 2 three research areas scope context of this thesis: Software Product Lines, Business Processes, and Model-Driven Engineering. Throughout Chapter 3, we propose a new SPLE methodology that focuses on the derivation of product behavior. We first describe the main flow of the methodology, and then detail the individual steps. In chapter 4 we propose a new domain specific language called CBPF created for modeling composable business process fragments. A model driven approach is followed for creating CBPF: definition of the abstract syntax, graphical concrete syntax and translational semantics. In Chapter 5 we propose several types of verifications that can be applied to business processfragments to determine their "correctness". For structural verification we definine a set of fragment consistency rules that should be valid for every business process fragment created with CBPF. To check behavioral correctness we first transform the business process fragment into an equivalent HCPN. We can then check generic properties but also define aset of fragment specific properties. In chapter 6 we exemplify the proposed SPL methodology by applying it to a case study from the crisis management system domain. We also propose a tool suite that supports our methodology. Chapter 7 describes possible improvements and extensions to the contributions of this thesis. We conclude the thesis in Chapter 8 and draw some conclusions.

The impact of globalisation and advanced information technology on service and knowledgebased industries in South Africa contributes to these workplaces becoming increasingly virtual. Virtual teams can be seen as a mechanism that organisations could use to increase their orientation for change through enhancing and integrating key organisational resources such as people, space and information technology to deliver greater business value. The findings of several studies suggest that the implementation of virtual teams is associated with benefits such as cost and time saving, increased employee productivity and employee empowerment. There are however salient barriers to effective virtual teamwork that organisations need to address before engaging in the transformational process towards virtual teamwork. The literature review identified ineffective leadership practices, factors relating to virtual team development, inadequate use of information technology and a paucity of social and organisational cultural integration, as the most salient features that impede effective virtual teamwork. The objective of this research was to develop a basic theoretical framework for the implementation of virtual teams. Since virtual teams emanate from a relatively new area of research an inductive methodology, based on a literature review, was used to achieve the research objective. Several theoretical models on virtual teams and their effectiveness thereon were explored to conceptualise the dynamic nature of virtual teams and the requirements for implementing them in the workplace. The results of the study indicated that an emergent approach to change be followed and that the following factors be addressed to determine an organisation's readiness for the implementation of virtual teams, namely: the degree of interdependence between tasks, structural requirements, technological requirements, process redesign and the selection of appropriate people. A methodology for work transformation towards virtual teamwork was suggested based on an integration of these factors. / Thesis (M.Sc. (Industrial Psychology))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2004.

The aim of the thesis is to design a web services architecture that shall support the automatic determination of a personalised sensor-system, which is embedded in smart garments, and which shall be used in self-care in order to allow a profane user to record himself a personal electrocardiogram (ECG), at anytime and anywhere. The main challenge consists in the intelligent and dynamic orchestration of context-aware business services that supply the user with an optimal personalised solution, while mastering the system's complexity: context dependent user and system interactions, knowledge extraction from subject-specific vital signs, services reconfiguration automation. The solution to this challenge is to create an Ambient Intelligence which goes beyond Ubiquitous Computing and is capable to replace an expert by proposing an Intelligent Assistance to any citizen. We propose a methodology expressed in terms of Data and Model driven Service Oriented Architecture (DM-SOA), which provides a framework for the production of context-aware intelligent business services. This architecture supports the automation of sophisticated and personalised expert activities, which apply professional knowledge to process an individual case. The proposed solution is based on a new dynamic business process modelling approach and in its implementation via automatically reconfigurable services. It consists in setting-up an intelligent environment based on a business process ontology of context-aware concepts and on related context handling rules for services orchestration. A core-ontology has been designed to support the automation of expert activities related to decision-making. The soundness of the method and of the underlying decision-making techniques has been demonstrated in the cardiology domain for selecting the most adequate subject-specific sensor-system, characterised by its ability to yield for an ECG signal of similar diagnostic content than a standard 12-lead ECG. We propose the design of a new three modalities sensor-system prototype as a response to the need of sensor-systems used on demand in self-care situations and ensuring diagnostic quality signals recordings. This prototype has been tested on a set of healthy volunteers presenting various characteristics in age, sex and morphology. In this context, Ambient Intelligence is demonstrated as an ensemble of professional quality services ready to use by profane users. These services are accessible pervasively, trough the objects people work with / wear on / use each day, and provide an appropriate guidance to the non-competent users. Such an Ambient Intelligence approach strongly supports the vision of an Information Society which corresponds to the long-term goal of the EU Information Society Technologies Research Programme that aims to ease knowledge access. The future healthcare will benefit from this approach and will significantly improve patient care.

Disertacijoje tiriamas sprendimų modelių kūrimas verslo taisyklių ir procesų modelių pagalba bei šių modelių transformacijos į programų sistemų komponentus realizuojančius automatizuotus sprendimus informacinėje sistemoje. Analitinėje disertacijos dalyje apžvelgiami sprendimu modeliai ir metodai skirti intelektualizuotų informacinių sistemų kūrimui. Tolimesniuose skyriuose pateikiamas, remiantis analizės rezultatais, sukurtas modelių karkasas ir jo pagrindu sukurtas metodas skirtas sprendimų modelių automatizavimui. Baigiamajame disertacijos skyriuje aprašomi eksperimentai, kuriuose atliekamos sprendimų modelių transformacijos. Galiausiai pateikiami eksperimentų rezultatai ir galutinės išvados. / In the presented thesis we offer modernisation of information system development methods used for implementation of automated information-, rule-, knowledge- and model-based decision processes assisted by early separation and development of a business logic model and implementation of decision-making and knowledge discovery process models with further support to business people with suitable interfaces for modification of decision-making processes without involvement of software developers in later exploitation stages. In the analytical part of the dissertation, decision models and methods of intellectualised information systems are analysed. According to the results obtained during the analysis, investigation on the proposed framework and a decision model based method for decision-making process automation is carried out. In the final chapter several experiments are described in order to evaluate the proposed method, and the general conclusions complete the research.

Strategic business and IT alignment assessment is growing in importance. Different assessment methods have been used to try to pursue the complexity of this dynamic and evolutionary alignment. Despite the fact that alignment is a real problem and a challenge of utmost importance, no consensus can be found on what alignment really is, how it should be measured in the organization in practice, or what measures should be taken to maintain and improve it. Consequently, the key question about how to assess and accomplish (define, identify, measure, maintain and improve) the strategic business and IT alignment is still a great unanswered challenge for many enterprises. In this thesis work, three main research questions were formulated: how can the validity and reliability of an alignment assessment method be improved, what are the dominant topics in the area of alignment, and how to facilitate the analysis of the business and IT governance alignment based on business process simulation and balanced scorecard methods. This is a composite thesis work that includes an introduction and six papers (paper A-F). The main contributions and results of this thesis are described in published and included technical papers. In papers A and B an alternative organization-wide approach and metamodel for assessing strategic business and IT alignment are proposed. Two case studies were performed applying the proposed approach. In paper C, a prioritized diagram of the most widely accepted strategic alignment model, with the purpose of categorizing the most important topics in the research area of strategic business and IT alignment is presented. One of the relevant topics that were identified is governance. In papers D, E and F, there are presented a business process simulation approach and a balanced scorecard method in order to facilitate the assessment of the business and IT governance alignment. An illustrative example of the simulation approach is presented in an appendix of this thesis. This research work aims to improve the decision-making process for business and IT managers at different levels in an enterprise by means of increasing the level of understanding and knowledge as well as by enhancing existing models and methods, for evaluating strategic business and IT alignment. / <p>QC 20101110</p>

The impact of globalisation and advanced information technology on service and knowledgebased industries in South Africa contributes to these workplaces becoming increasingly virtual. Virtual teams can be seen as a mechanism that organisations could use to increase their orientation for change through enhancing and integrating key organisational resources such as people, space and information technology to deliver greater business value. The findings of several studies suggest that the implementation of virtual teams is associated with benefits such as cost and time saving, increased employee productivity and employee empowerment. There are however salient barriers to effective virtual teamwork that organisations need to address before engaging in the transformational process towards virtual teamwork. The literature review identified ineffective leadership practices, factors relating to virtual team development, inadequate use of information technology and a paucity of social and organisational cultural integration, as the most salient features that impede effective virtual teamwork. The objective of this research was to develop a basic theoretical framework for the implementation of virtual teams. Since virtual teams emanate from a relatively new area of research an inductive methodology, based on a literature review, was used to achieve the research objective. Several theoretical models on virtual teams and their effectiveness thereon were explored to conceptualise the dynamic nature of virtual teams and the requirements for implementing them in the workplace. The results of the study indicated that an emergent approach to change be followed and that the following factors be addressed to determine an organisation's readiness for the implementation of virtual teams, namely: the degree of interdependence between tasks, structural requirements, technological requirements, process redesign and the selection of appropriate people. A methodology for work transformation towards virtual teamwork was suggested based on an integration of these factors. / Thesis (M.Sc. (Industrial Psychology))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2004.

Business process management (BPM) is a philosophical approach to organisation-wide management in which the focus is on the processes through which it operates, and in particular the streamlining and optimising of these processes, for which software solutions may be used. CTexT is an intrapreneurial software organisation that has been experiencing problems with software development due to a lack of formal processes relating to customer support, versioning, configuration, quality, risk and project management. The objective of the study is to determine whether the implementation of an electronic BPM system can effectively solve CTexT's development problems and thereby improve its overall software development capacity. More specifically, the focus is on i) the effect of the resulting standardisation on creativity and innovation, and ii) implementation matters, such as the type of processes that can be subjected to an electronic system, and how CTexT can overcome the time and cost constraints of such a system. The study investigates these questions by means of a literature investigation in combination with interviews with knowledgeable respondents from other innovative and software organisations. Interviews with six employees from CTexT determine the relevance of these findings and highlight critical areas for process improvement. Since BPM systems improve organisational efficiencies and are generally employed in larger corporate contexts marked by transactional and repetitive activities where they enforce administrative rules, the conclusion is drawn that a BPM system will not be suitable for an intrapreneurial organisation, and that it is likely to cause more disruption to the creative environment than improve its operations. It is further shown that although a BPM system is theoretically applicable to software development, it generally does not seem to be applied practically in the industry, and the suitability of this process as manageable through a BPM system is seriously questioned. Instead, the research points to improvement through the application of software development methodologies and a holistic approach towards BPM. The investigation at CTexT confirms that its development problems relate to flawed methodologies and that remedies should therefore focus on improving its methodologies and controlling certain aspects of the software development life cycle by means of suitable software tools. / Thesis (M.B.A.)--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2007