This thesis presents the framework of a complex business process driven event stream processing system to produce meaningful output with direct implications to the business objectives of an organization. This framework is demonstrated using a case study instantiating the management of a newborn infant with hypoglycaemia. Business processes defined within guidelines, are defined at build-time while critical knowledge found in the definition of business processes are used to support their enactment for stream analysis. Four major research contributions are delivered. The first contribution enables the definition and enactment of complex business processes in real-time. The second contribution supports the extraction of business process using knowledge found within the initial expression of the business process. The third contribution allows for the explicit use of temporal abstraction and stream analysis knowledge to support enactment in real-time. Finally, the last contribution is the real-time integration of heterogeneous streams based on Service-Oriented Architecture principles. / UOIT

After the implementation of national health insurance, the health care industry has entered into a new era. The public not only ask the hospital for medical technology and expertise, but also more focus on the quality of care. The quality of health care has become a successful key factor for hospital management. The biggest problem of quality management faced by a hospital is that no one can clearly describe the organizational structure, business process, and information system which are related with the medical quality management. Provided that no one could completely describe the quality management system, neither a tool to represent and analyze the quality management system, it is impossible to achieve a nice and sound quality management throughout the hospital. This research uses a quality management model as an example, introducing service-oriented medical quality management model (SOMQMM) to corporate restructuring and process improvements. Service-oriented management model, using the service-oriented theory and method, is able to effectively describe the organizational structure, business process, and information system all in one. ontribution of this research is through the structure-behavior coalescence (SBC) service-oriented theory and method to create a new management tool and quality management model. From this model, we can clearly describe how we can do better quality of care for the medical industry, and integrate the quality management to the organizational structure and business process. Hence, provide the dynamic quality of information system to the manager as the basis for adjustment and management.

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.

Siekiant maksimizuoti organizacijos pelną ir pagerinti jos veiklos rezultatus reikia efektyviai išnaudoti visus organizacijoje vykstančius verslo procesus. Tai padaryti galima naudojant įvairias verslo procesų valdymui skirtas kompiuterizuotas informacines sistemas. Projektavimo tikslas – sukurti ir aprašyti statinius ir dinaminius organizacijoje vykstančius procesus. Verslo procesams projektuoti ir analizuoti kuriant informacines sistemas, ypač jeigu jos didelės, reikia specialių projektavimo metodologijų ir priemonių, kurios šiuos procesus palengvintų, padarytų lengviau suvokiamais ir paspartintų darbą. Darbe išanalizuoti verslo procesų projektavimo būdai kuriant informacines sistemas: Petri tinklai, UML ir hibridinis Petri tinklų ir UML projektavimo metodas, pateikti jų aprašymai, savybės, galimybės. Taip pat išanalizuota organizacijose vykstantys verslo procesai. Bene daugiausia dėmesio skirta į rezultatyvumo ir žinių bei informacijos valdymo procesą, kadangi nuo jų priklauso organizacijos veiklos rezultatai. Organizacija projektuojama pradedant nuo bazinio - rezultatyvumo proceso. Todėl teorinių tyrimų aprašymo dalyje nagrinėjama pasirinkto rezultatyvumo verslo proceso projektavimas aprašytais Petri tinklų, UML bei hibridiniu metodais. Eksperimentinių tyrimų dalyje pasirinkta organizacija UAB „Proringas“, išanalizuoti joje veikiantys verslo procesai, sumodeliuotos skirtingų procesų valdymo sistemos, kurios sujungtos ir projektuotos trimis analizuojamais metodais. Metodai... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / For maximising profit of organization and increasing its efficiency of activities must be used all business processes used in organization. The purpose of designing – to create and describe static and dynamic processes in organization. For projecting and analysing business processes while created information systems it is needed special modelling methodologies and tools that would make easier and more understandable those processes and would increase efficiency of work. There is analysed business processes design in this work while are created information systems: Petri-Net, UML and hybrid Petri-Net and UML design project methods, listed their descriptions, characteristics and possibilities. Also there are analysed business processes that take place in organization. Specialized attitude to information resources managing suppose demand of business system information, its usage and value by addressing adequate order for software. According the management position it must be coordination of data and information processing capabilities with creative person capabilities and technologies. Organization designed starting from processes and from them must be designed efficiency process. So in theoretical part it is analysed by chosen efficiency business process design described by Petri-Net and UML methods. In the part of experimental research selected organization - Joint stock company Proringas, analised business processes in it, modelled business processes that takes part in it... [to full text]

Stakeholder engagement, and specifically employee engagement has proven to have an influence on how companies perform and how value is created in organisations. Within the competitive world where Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs) are functioning, employee engagement can be the master key that unlocks better organisational performance. The objective of this study is to research the influence of stakeholder engagement on business performance and value creation, and to identify factors that impact on stakeholder engagement. The processes that are in place to engage with employees and how value are created through employee engagement, are also investigated. Studies have proven that successful employee engagement can have a positive influence on how businesses perform. The various factors that have an influence on employee engagement, are identified, including: • People. • Communication. • Work. • Rewards. • Opportunities. • Quality of life; and • Company practices. The study found that engagement levels in selected SMEs in Gauteng are high and the results, as discussed in Chapter 3, are positive. It proves that a significant percentage of employees are engaged on the following levels: 1. Rational - this indicates how well employees understand their roles and responsibilities in their various companies. 2. Emotional - this level indicates with how much passion employees work and how passionate they are about their organisation. 3. Motivational - this indicates how willing employees are to give more than is expected of them, and how hard they work to perform well on their roles and responsibilities. The results of the study can be used by companies to improve employee engagement and create value in their organisations - it can assist them in building a sustainable, competitive organisation. / Thesis (M.B.A.)--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2011

Stakeholder engagement, and specifically employee engagement has proven to have an influence on how companies perform and how value is created in organisations. Within the competitive world where Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs) are functioning, employee engagement can be the master key that unlocks better organisational performance. The objective of this study is to research the influence of stakeholder engagement on business performance and value creation, and to identify factors that impact on stakeholder engagement. The processes that are in place to engage with employees and how value are created through employee engagement, are also investigated. Studies have proven that successful employee engagement can have a positive influence on how businesses perform. The various factors that have an influence on employee engagement, are identified, including: • People. • Communication. • Work. • Rewards. • Opportunities. • Quality of life; and • Company practices. The study found that engagement levels in selected SMEs in Gauteng are high and the results, as discussed in Chapter 3, are positive. It proves that a significant percentage of employees are engaged on the following levels: 1. Rational - this indicates how well employees understand their roles and responsibilities in their various companies. 2. Emotional - this level indicates with how much passion employees work and how passionate they are about their organisation. 3. Motivational - this indicates how willing employees are to give more than is expected of them, and how hard they work to perform well on their roles and responsibilities. The results of the study can be used by companies to improve employee engagement and create value in their organisations - it can assist them in building a sustainable, competitive organisation. / Thesis (M.B.A.)--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2011

Business Processes (BP) and Information Technology (IT) are two areas that work very closely in helping organisations to keep or retain competitive advantage. Therefore, design in these areas should consider the advantages provided by, and the limitations that each of these domains imposes on each other. BP design tries to ensure that IT specifications are considered during the design of BP. Similarly, Information Systems (IS) design attempts to capture organisational needs, known as IS functional and Non-Functional Requirements (NFR), in order to meet the organisational goals. Despite this, BP and IT modelling techniques barely depict the way IT may affect BP performance or vice versa. For example, Business Process Simulation (BPS) is one of the modelling techniques that has been increasingly used to support process design. The performance measurements obtained from BPS models, though, are obtained considering only organisational issues, and thus cannot be used to assess the impact that IT may have on process performance. Similarly, IT modelling techniques do not provide IS performance measurements, and hence cannot depict the way IS may improve BP performance. The relationship between BP and IT can be alternatively described in terms of the relationships between BP, IS and Computer Networks (CN). By looking at the parameters that govern these relationships a simulation framework was developed, namely ASSESS-IT, that develops simulation models that provide performance measurements of BP, IS and CN, and thus can reflect the impact that IT (IS and CN) may have on BP performance. This research uses a case study to test the proposed framework (theory testing), to understand the way BP, IS, and CN domains interact (discovery), and to propose alternative theories to solve the problems found (theory building). The experimentation with the ASSESS-IT framework suggests that in order to portray the impact that IT may have on BP, analysts in these domains should first identify those performance specifications that describe how well the IS delivers its functionality (also known as non-functional requirements). It was found that when the IS does not depend on determined response time, the relationships between BP, IS and CN can be assessed using only the relationship between BP and IS. An alternative simulation framework, namely BPISS, is proposed to produce BPS models that provide performance measurements of BP and IS. Thus, BP and IT analysts can investigate the impact that a given IS design may have on BP performance, and identify a better BP and IS solution.

Prozessstandardisierungen stellen einen vielversprechenden Ansatz zur Steigerung der Wettbewerbsfähigkeit von Organisationen dar. Im Gegensatz zur praktischen Relevanz werden Prozessstandardisierungen in der Wissenschaft aktuell jedoch nur sehr fragmentiert betrachtet. Auf Basis einer systemtheoretischen Perspektive wird ein ganzheitlicher Ansatz zur Standardisierung von Geschäftsprozessen entwickelt, um auf diese Weise Organisationen in die Lage zu versetzen, von den Vorteilen einer Prozessstandardisierung vollständig profitieren zu können und somit ihre Wettbewerbsfähigkeit zu stärken.

Integration is one of the driving themes in database and applied computing research. Starting with the development of Federated Information Systems and passing over to Enterprise Application Integration, the integration of distributed systems receives a lot of attention with the development of Web services these days. Integration on an architecture independent level can be cast to the integration of autonomous object oriented systems which requires the integration of object structure and object behaviour. Past research has mainly addressed the structural aspects meaning the integration of class attributes and relations. This thesis is addressing the integration of object behaviour and proposes a structured, model-driven approach for the integration of business processes specifying software application behaviour. It consists of the identification of correspondences between business processes on different levels of abstraction and associates the correspondences with integration patterns that lead to a specific technical integration. One advantage of the approach is that correspondences and patterns are defined separately, which enhances the re-usability of patterns in different integration scenarios. Integration scenarios can be distinguished between horizontal and vertical integration, and within or across enterprise borders. Within an enterprise, horizontal integration consists of integrating systems on the same level of abstraction and vertical integration consists of integrating systems on different levels of abstractions, whereas across enterprise borders, horizontal integration consists of determining the most appropriate systems, from among a set of functionally equivalent ones, and vertical integration consists of defining an appropriate combination of systems to create a new one. So far, there exist no approach that attempts to support all integration scenarios within a framework. This thesis proposes an integration approach that is able to support all integration scenarios mentioned before. The approach is built on a meta-meta layer architecture and provides generic methods and techniques for the logical integration of object behaviour based on a domain independent framework. The thesis proposes two alternative outcomes of an integration. First one creates a new global behaviour that integrates local behaviour and can be supported by a service oriented architecture. Second alternative outcome are synchronisation points between business process, so-called inter-process dependencies, that can be supported by an event-driven architecture. The advantages and disadvantages of both are discussed in detail.

A tecnologia de workflow tem-se mostrado cada vez mais importante para o mercado de automação de processos e para que as organizações desempenhem suas funções da melhor maneira possível (MUTSCHLER, 2008). A modelagem de processos ganhou em importância neste contexto, tornando-se alvo de pesquisas, inclusive acadêmicas. Nestas pesquisas, certas estruturas recorrentes que precisam ser redesenhadas a cada nova modelagem foram identificadas. Conhecidas também como padrões, existem com variados focos e objetivos (AALST, 2003), (RUSSEL, 2004a), (RUSSEL, 2004b), (BRADSHAW, 2005), (RUSSEL, 2006), (THOM, 2006a), (THOM, 2009). O conjunto de padrões apresentados em Thom (2006a), (2009) é interessante, pois apresenta padrões de atividade os quais representam funções de negócio recorrentes, tais como aprovação de documentos, notificação de pagamento e solicitação de execução de tarefa. Estes padrões são mais próximos do nível de descrição dos especialistas do domínio e, por isto, mostram-se como bastante promissores para serem aplicados durante a análise e modelagem de processos. Diversos pesquisadores defendem a ideia de que a padronização de estruturas de processo e a re-utilização dos padrões resultantes deste exercício podem incrementar a produtividade, tanto na fase de modelagem e documentação dos processos como na fase de manutenção ou de re-escrita destes mesmos. A utilização de padrões de workflow pode tornar a fase de modelagem mais eficiente e de melhor qualidade, gerando processos mais bem formatados e menos suscetíveis a erros (OBJECT MANAGEMENT GROUP, 2006). Nesta direção, este trabalho pretende utilizar os padrões de atividade desenvolvidos em Thom (2006a) para descobrir e analisar associações recorrentes entre eles. Com estas informações pode-se melhorar a fase de modelagem de processos na medida em que será possível saber como os padrões de atividade costumam conectarem-se uns com os outros. Estas prováveis associações podem então ser sugeridas, de forma automática, a um usuário no momento da modelagem de um novo processo. Neste trabalho serão buscados meios que possibilitem obter estas informações, contemplando a adoção de uma metodologia, algoritmos e a adaptação destes ao problema proposto. Ao final, espera-se obter subsídios para aprimorar e difundir a modelagem com base no reuso. Serão buscadas informações que permitam avaliar se a fase de modelagem pode se beneficiar da utilização de padrões e proporcionar resultados interessantes. A partir do conhecimento das associações recorrentes entre os padrões de atividade, estes poderão ter a sua utilização aumentada e a modelagem de processos com a utilização de padrões será evoluída. Desta forma, a utilização inteligente de estruturas recorrentes na modelagem de processos estará sendo ampliada e promovida. / Workflow technology has been increasingly important for the process automation market so that organizations can perform their duties in the best possible way (MUTSCHLER, 2008). Process modeling has gained in importance in this context, becoming subject of research, including academic. In these studies, certain recurrent structures that must be redesigned for each new modeling were identified. Also known as patterns, they exist with different focuses and objectives (AALST, 2003), (RUSSEL, 2004a), (RUSSEL, 2004b), (BRADSHAW, 2005), (RUSSEL, 2006), (THOM, 2006a), (THOM, 2009). The patterns set presented in Thom (2006a), (2009) is interesting, because it shows activity patterns which represent recurrent business functions, such as document approval, payment notification and task execution request. These patterns are closer to the domain experts description level and, therefore, are as much promising to be used during process analysis and modeling. Several researchers advocate the idea that the standardization of process structures and the reuse of the resulting patterns from this exercise can increase the productivity, both at the process modeling and documentation phases as in the maintenance or rewrite phases of these. The use of workflow patterns can make modeling phase more efficient and with better quality, generating more well-formed and less error prone processes (OBJECT MANAGEMENT GROUP, 2006). In this direction, this work intends to use the activity patterns developed in Thom (2006a) to find and analyze recurrent associations between them. With this information it is possible to improve process modeling phase as it will be possible to know how activity patterns are usually connected with each other. These probable associations can then be suggested, in an automatic way, to a user when modeling a new process. In this research, mechanisms to enable to obtain this information, including the adoption of a methodology, algorithm and the adaptation of these to the proposed problem will be seek. At the end, it is expected to obtain subsidies to improve and disseminate the modeling based on reuse. Information will be sought to assess whether the modeling phase can benefit from pattern utilization and provide interesting results. From the recurrent association between activity patterns knowledge, they may have its utilization increased and the process modeling with the use of patterns will be evolved. Thus, the intelligent use of recurrent structures will be expanded and promoted.