Metadata is an important part of any Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI). Without proper and sufficient documentation of spatial data, resources are lost when pre-existing data has to be recreated or if data sets overlap. At the same time, creating and updating metadata can be a resource intensive task. Lantmäteriet seeks to optimize the creation and updating of metadata according to the new INSPIRE directive, as well as the Swedish National Geodata Strategy. INSPIRE (Infrastructure for Spatial Information in Europe) seeks to increase cooperation between nations in Europe through harmonization of certain spatial data themes, increased data and software interoperability, as well as the creation of a European spatial data infrastructure.  INSPIRE lays the judicial foundation for this European cooperation. Sweden has been involved with INSPIRE since May 15th 2009. This thesis is aimed at developing the most optimal business process model for how the Swedish Mapping, Cadastral, and Land Registration Authority (Lantmäteriet) can create and update metadata according to the new INSPIRE directive based on best practice case studies and extensive literature review. The European Commission (EC) INSPIRE directive will be fully implemented in 2010. Furthermore, a survey of current metadata practices has been carried out to establish a starting off point for metadata creation at Lantmäteriet as well as a best practice business process model using ArcGIS Desktop.

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Business process management is fast becoming one of the most important approaches for designing contemporary organizations and information systems. A critical component of business process management is business process modelling. It is widely accepted that modelling of business processes from scratch is a complex, time-consuming and error-prone task. However the efforts made to model these processes are seldom reused beyond their original purpose. Reuse of business process models has the potential to overcome the challenges of modelling business processes from scratch. Process model repositories, properly populated, are certainly a step toward supporting reuse of process models. This thesis starts with the observation that the existing process model repositories for supporting process model reuse suffer from several shortcomings that affect their usability in practice. Firstly, most of the existing repositories are proprietary, therefore they can only be enhanced or extended with new models by the owners of the repositories. Secondly, it is difficult to locate and retrieve relevant process models from a large collection. Thirdly, process models are not goal related, thereby making it difficult to gain an understanding of the business goals that are realized by a certain model. Finally, process model repositories lack a clear mechanism to identify and define the relationship between business processes and as a result it is difficult to identify related processes. Following a design science research paradigm, this thesis proposes an open and language-independent process model repository with an efficient retrieval system to support process model reuse. The proposed repository is grounded on four original and interrelated contributions: (1) a set of requirements that a process model repository should possess to increase the probability of process model reuse; (2) a context-based process semantic annotation model for semantically annotating process models to facilitate effective retrieval of process models; (3) a business process relationship meta-model for identifying and defining the relationship of process models in the repository; and (4) architecture of a process model repository for process model reuse. The models and architecture produced in this thesis were evaluated to test their utility, quality and efficacy. The semantic annotation model was evaluated through two empirical studies using controlled experiments. The conclusion drawn from the two studies is that the annotation model improves searching, navigation and understanding of process models. The process relationship meta-model was evaluated using an informed argument to determine the extent to which it meets the established requirements. The results of the analysis revealed that the meta-model meets the established requirements. Also the analysis of the architecture against the requirements indicates that the architecture meets the established requirements. / Processhantering, också kallat ärendehantering, har blivit en av de viktigaste ansatserna för att utforma dagens organisationer och informationssystem. En central komponent i processhantering är processmodellering. Det är allmänt känt att modellering av processer kan vara en komplex, tidskrävande och felbenägen uppgift. Och de insatser som görs för att modellera processer kan sällan användas bortom processernas ursprungliga syfte. Återanvändning av processmodeller skulle kunna övervinna många av de utmaningar som finns med att modellera processer. En katalog över processmodeller är ett steg mot att stödja återanvändning av processmodeller. Denna avhandling börjar med observationen att befintliga processmodellkataloger för att stödja återanvändning av processmodeller lider av flera brister som påverkar deras användbarhet i praktiken. För det första är de flesta processmodellkatalogerna proprietära, och därför kan endast katalogägarna förbättra eller utöka dem med nya modeller. För det andra är det svårt att finna och hämta relevanta processmodeller från en stor katalog. För det tredje är processmodeller inte målrelaterade, vilket gör det svårt att få en förståelse för de affärsmål som realiseras av en viss modell. Slutligen så saknar processmodellkataloger ofta en tydlig mekanism för att identifiera och definiera förhållandet mellan processer, och därför är det svårt att identifiera relaterade processer. Utifrån ett designvetenskapligt forskningsparadigm så föreslår denna avhandling en öppen och språkoberoende processmodellkatalog med ett effektivt söksystem för att stödja återanvändning av processmodeller. Den föreslagna katalogen bygger på fyra originella och inbördes relaterade bidrag: (1) en uppsättning krav som en processmodellkatalog bejöver uppfylla för att öka möjligheterna till återanvändning av processmodeller; (2) en kontextbaserad semantisk processannoteringsmodell för semantisk annotering av processmodeller för att underlätta effektivt återvinnande av processmodeller; (3) en metamodell för processrelationer för att identifiera och definiera förhållandet mellan processmodeller i katalogen; och (4) en arkitektur av en processmodellkatalog för återanvändning av processmodeller. De modeller och den arkitektur som tagits fram i denna avhandling har utvärderats för att testa deras användbarhet, kvalitet och effektivitet. Den semantiska annotationsmodellen utvärderades genom två empiriska studier med kontrollerade experiment. Slutsatsen av de två studierna är att modellen förbättrar sökning, navigering och förståelse för processmodeller. Metamodellen för processrelationer utvärderades med hjälp av ett informerat argument för att avgöra i vilken utsträckning den uppfyllde de ställda kraven. Resultaten av analysen visade att metamodellen uppfyllde dessa krav. Även analysen av arkitekturen indikerade att denna uppfyllde de fastställda kraven.

The design and development of process-aware information systems is often supported by specifying requirements as business process models. Although this approach is generally accepted as an effective strategy, it remains a fundamental challenge to adequately validate these models given the diverging skill set of domain experts and system analysts. As domain experts often do not feel confident in judging the correctness and completeness of process models that system analysts create, the validation often has to regress to a discourse using natural language. In order to support such a discourse appropriately, so-called verbalization techniques have been defined for different types of conceptual models. However, there is currently no sophisticated technique available that is capable of generating natural-looking text from process models. In this paper, we address this research gap and propose a technique for generating natural language texts from business process models. A comparison with manually created process descriptions demonstrates that the generated texts are superior in terms of completeness, structure, and linguistic complexity. An evaluation with users further demonstrates that the texts are very understandable and effectively allow the reader to infer the process model semantics. Hence, the generated texts represent a useful input for process model validation.

Thesis presents author's view to principles of business process management (BPM) and the process approach to the description of business processes. The main contribution made by this thesis is subsequent practical application of all principles to particular company in tourism - asistence service. Objectives of this thesis were achieved through studying theoretical resources and use of practical experience.

Durant l’exploitation d’une ligne de métro, l’opérateur de supervision est responsable de l’exécution de procédures pour la gestion des incidents. Cependant, lors de l’occurrence combinée d’incidents, les procédures utilisées peuvent se retrouver en concurrence. Dans ce cas, des situations ne garantissant pas la sécurité des personnes existent et un accident peut se déclencher. La démarche d’étude des procédures intègre tout d’abord leur représentation graphique avec la notation BPMN. Ces modèles de procédure, compréhensibles et accessibles, constituent ainsi une base de connaissances pour les industriels concernés. Ces modèles sont ensuite interprétés sous forme de réseaux de Petri pour ajouter une dynamique au système étudié. La notion de contrôlabilité et l’influence du contexte d’exécution sont alors introduites dans l’étude de procédures de gestion d’incident. Afin d’assurer la sécurité des personnes, des états interdits sont définis et identifiés parmi l’ensemble des états accessibles par l’application de la théorie du contrôle par supervision. Ces états interdits se caractérisent de manière originale : suivant leur inclusion dans un ensemble d’états particuliers mais également suivant la contrôlabilité de leurs transitions sortantes. Cette caractérisation innovante s’accompagne des algorithmes permettant de déterminer et d’éviter les états interdits. Afin d’orienter l’opérateur de supervision dans les actions à exécuter lors d’incidents combinés, des critères de différenciation des trajectoires admissibles évitant les états interdits sont également définis. Les résultats obtenus permettent de proposer une assistance à l’opérateur de supervision sous forme d’alertes et de conseils. Cette étude se base sur le système de supervision ATS développé par Thales et sur les procédures de gestion d’incident de l’un de leurs clients, la RATP. Un prototype de fonctionnalité d’aide à l’opérateur pour la gestion des incidents reposant sur le savoir-faire client a ainsi pu être intégré au logiciel de Thales. / During metro line operations, the supervision operator is responsible for the procedures’ execution when referring to incidents management. However, when combined incidents occur, procedures may be competing. In this particular case, situations which do not ensure people’s safety exist and an accident might happen. Firstly, the approach of studying these procedures integrates their graphical representation with the BPMN notation. These procedures’ models, understandable and accessible, provide a significant amount of knowledge for industrials in this area. Secondly, these models are performed as Petri nets to add dynamic to the system of interest. That is why, the notion of controllability and the influence of the execution context are introduced in the study of incidents management procedures. To ensure people’s safety, forbidden states are defined and identified among the states space with the supervisory control theory. These states are characterized in an original way : depending on their inclusion in a set of states but also depending on the controllability of their outgoing transitions. In addition to this innovative characterization, algorithms allow to determine and to avoid forbidden states. Criteria distinguish the admissible sequences which avoid forbidden states. These differentiation criteria are defined to steer the supervision operator through the actions he has to execute when combined incidents occur. Results allow us to provide assistance to the supervision operator with warnings and advice. This study is based on ATS supervision system developed by Thales and one of their customers’ incidents management procedures, the RATP. A prototype of operator support functionality for incidents management based on customer know-how has been implemented into Thales software.

MEMORIA PARA OPTAR AL TÍTULO DE MAGÍSTER EN CONTROL DE GESTIÓN / Business Process Model and Notation (BPMN) se ha convertido en un estándar para describir flujos de tareas. BPMN propone un conjunto de símbolos que representan el comportamiento de los procesos de negocios desde el punto de vista del usuario de un sistema de información y aporta descripción de elementos para la automatización computacional. Por otra parte, el comportamiento de procesos ha sido estudiado por decenas de años en Investigación Operativa bajo el nombre de Problema de Scheduling. A pesar de la estrecha relación, no se encuentra en la literatura ninguna referencia a ambos problemas en conjunto, ni ningún aporte desde el problema de Scheduling a la representación del comportamiento en BPMN. ¿Es posible enriquecer la capacidad descriptiva de BPMN con elementos del comportamiento estudiados en el problema de Scheduling? ¿Es posible que existan elementos del comportamiento de procesos de negocio relevantes que no estén representados en BPMN? ¿Cuáles son esos elementos?. Para responder a estas preguntas, investigamos en detalle el formalismo BPMN y el problema de Scheduling, identificamos diferencias y proponemos un conjunto de símbolos que añaden más descripción al comportamiento de los procesos de negocios desde el punto de vista del usuario. Adicionalmente, se hizo una revisión de dos trabajos previos que proponen mejoras a BPMN, pero que van en una dirección diferente a lo buscado en este trabajo. En este trabajo presentamos detalladamente el último estándar BPMN 2.0 y revisamos un voluminoso resumen del problema de Scheduling (Pinedo, 2016). Durante esta revisión, encontramos varios elementos prácticos relevantes del problema de Scheduling que no están representados en BPMN. Entre estos elementos destacan la velocidad de procesamiento, tiempo de procesamiento, la capacidad de procesamiento, la regla de prioridad y la función objetivo. Estudiando las diferencias, encontramos que hay elementos que describen el problema de Scheduling que deberían incorporarse al estándar BPMN, porque contribuyen a una mejor y más completa caracterización de los procesos. De hecho, con los atributos de velocidad, el tiempo de preparación y de procesamiento, se puede describir gráficamente la presencia de cuellos de botella y restricción de recursos. Adicionalmente, la regla de prioridad permite describir colas de espera impuestas por condiciones propias del negocio. Finalmente, la función objetivo permite comunicar de manera gráfica a los participantes del negocio cuáles son los objetivos que la organización requiere de los procesos. Hay algunos elementos propios de Scheduling que proponemos agregar sólo opcionalmente. Entre estas opciones están las restricciones que consideran la fecha de llegada de la tarea al sistema, los tiempos de espera entre máquinas, y familia de tareas. Con nuestra propuesta se robustece la capacidad descriptiva del estándar BPMN y lo hace apropiado a un mejor análisis consistente con la teoría de Scheduling.

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 increased adoption of business process management approaches, tools, and practices has led organizations to accumulate large collections of business process models. These collections can easily include from a hundred to a thousand models, especially in the context of multinational corporations or as a result of organizational mergers and acquisitions. A concrete problem is thus how to maintain these large repositories in such a way that their complexity does not hamper their practical usefulness as a means to describe and communicate business operations. This paper proposes a technique to automatically infer suitable names for business process models and fragments thereof. This technique is useful for model abstraction scenarios, as for instance when user-specific views of a repository are required, or as part of a refactoring initiative aimed to simplify the repository's complexity. The technique is grounded in an adaptation of the theory of meaning to the realm of business process models. We implemented the technique in a prototype tool and conducted an extensive evaluation using three process model collections from practice and a case study involving process modelers with different experience.

This diploma thesis focuses on processes in project management based on international standard IPMA Comptence Baseline (ICB). Its main goal is to create process models of chosen technical competences of the ICB. The models were built in a program called Bizagi Modeler in accordance with an international standard Business Process Model and Notation. Results of this thesis are represented by the process models for each of the chosen technical competences and by an overall model that put all the created competences together. It helps to show connections between the competences as well as to understand the application of competences within the project cycle. Crucial steps of chosen competences are also applied to a model project for better understanding of a real application. Created process models may serve as a user guide for project managers who manage projects according to the ICB.