With the big and fast changes in both information technology and knowledge in today‟s society, companies turn to e-learning and computer-based courses to educate their employees and customers, while saving time and money. The question is whether the quality of the education stays the same and to what extent can the educations be digitalized. The purpose of this project has been to increase the understanding of opportunities and obstacles in the transformation from a physical to a digital learning environment, and to find out to what extent an education can be digitalized while maintaining the education quality. To be able to do this an education in process modeling was created at a company called aRway. aRway is business modeling company that is interested in computer-based educations. The creation is based on a literature study that focuses on how adults learn and learning at the workplace, but also theories about how to create educations and what is important to think about. aRway‟s employees tested the education and the result was evaluated and analyzed. The result of thisstudy shows that in computer-based educations the quality can be preserved or even improved when getting surface knowledge, factual knowledge, like an introduction and for a know-how learning like examples, but when it comes to know-why and deeper knowledge you might need face-to-face education with a teacher present as a complement so that the quality of the education is not affected in a negative manner. / Med de stora och snabba förändringar i både informationsteknik och kunskap i dagens samhälle, vänder sig företag till e-lärande och datorbaserade kurser för att utbilda sina anställda och kunder, samtidigt som du sparar tid och pengar. Frågan är om kvaliteten på utbildningen förblir densamma och i vilken utsträckning kan utbildningarna kan digitaliseras. Syftet med detta projekt har varit att öka förståelsen för möjligheter och hinder i omvandlingen från en fysisk till en digital lärmiljö, och ta reda på i vilken utsträckning en utbildning kan digitaliseras med bibehållen hög kvalitet på utbildningen. För att kunna göra detta, skapade en utbildning i processmodellering vid ett företag som heter aRway. aRway är ett verksamhetsmodellering företag som är intresserade av datorbaserade utbildningar. Skapandet av utbildningen är baserad på en litteraturstudie som fokuserar på hur vuxna lär sig och lärande på arbetsplatsen, men även teorier om hur man skapar utbildningar och vad som är viktigt att tänka på. aRwaysanställda testade utbildning och resultatet utvärderades och analyserades. Resultatet av denna studievisar att i datorbaserade utbildningar kan kvalitet bevaras eller till och med förbättras när man det gäller ytlig kunskap, faktakunskaper, som en introduktion och en djupare kunskapså som exempel, men när det gäller att veta varför och fördjupade kunskaper du behöver en lärarledd utbildning som ett komplement, så att kvaliteten på utbildningen inte påverkas på ett negativt sätt.

Information technology (IT) is becoming the primary factordetermining the survival of most organizations. The differenttypes of systems and the wide range of objectives suggest thatdiverse evaluation methods are needed. There is a critical needfor a new approach to managing IT investments, and solving theinformation paradox should be a business imperative for allmanagers today. Evaluating IT investments introduces different types ofproblems that investment in traditional assets does notconsider. The focal point shifts from measuring hard andquantifiable benefits that appear on a firm’s incomestatement to measuring soft, diffuse, and qualitativeimpact. The decision to acquire new information technology poses anumber of serious evaluation problems for managers because theavailable methods for IT investment evaluation are mostlystatic and they do not consider dynamism in decision-makingprocesses. Common problems with the methods for evaluating ITinvestments are related to their inability to take account ofthe full range of potential benefits. There is a gap betweentheory and practice in relation to the use of any method formaking decisions and for continuous evaluation of ITinvestments. This thesis presents a new approach to evaluating benefitsof IT investments in a dynamic way, an approach consisting of acombination of dynamic information workflow models and businessprocess simulation techniques. The proposed approach givesmanagers and organizations the possibility of implementingother models for measuring different metrics and aspects of ITinvestments. A dynamic information workflow model of an electric utilityandsimulation essays are presented in order to show how theproposed approach is applied. The performance measure selectedfor running experiments was efficiency, which was characterizedby the following selected performance indicators: cycle time,resource utilization, and activity costs. Empirical data wascollected from case studies of different utilities in CentralAmerican countries. <b>Key words:</b>Business Process Modeling and Simulation,Evaluating IT Investments, Dynamic Information Workflow Model,Electric Utilities. / NR 20140805

Understanding of business processes is becoming an important key factor for successful businesses and today many organizations are facing the lack of knowledge about the business processes that they are working on. Since the interaction between different business processes and different actors are becoming more common it is not only enough for employees to have knowledge about the business processes that they involve directly, but also they need to know about the other business processes in the organization. Unfortunately there is not enough research on this topic in the literature and the goal of this thesis is to propose a method for solving the indicated problem by increasing the understanding of business processes by the employees in an organization. The proposed method basically contains the design and execution of process models based on a real scenario. A case study has been conducted at an IT company where the employees have no or limited knowledge about the business processes that their organization works on. Even though the method has been only tested in one organization it is generic and can be applied to any other similar organization. The design science approach is used to develop the method and build the process models as artifacts. The process models have been verified by using an executable business modeling tool, iPB, and presented to the employees in a seminar in order to make them to understand the business processes better. The knowledge of the employees about the business processes has been analyzed before and after the presentation, thus we could compare the results and find out how much their knowledge has increased after the presentation. The results have shown that the knowledge of the employees has increased significantly. In conclusion, the method of design and presentation of executable business process models has been proved to be a solution to the problem of not understanding of business processes in an organization well enough.

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Polypeptides are becoming an important component of the antibiotic therapeutics. The production demand of therapeutic polypeptides is increasing and there is a significant interest in developing more efficient production processes. In pharmaceutical industries, polypeptides are produced as a crude mixture. Reverse phase high performance liquid chromatography (RP HPLC) is used as a typical separation technique to purify the target polypeptide from other impurities. Currently organic modifier gradients are used to elute product peptides separately from impurities. In this work, we add a second, simultaneous counter-ion gradient, in the hope of increasing separation performance and call it double gradient reverse phase chromatography. A general procedure of the model-based optimization of a polypeptide crude mixture purification process was followed to evaluate the effects of the double gradients on industrial chromatographic process. The target polypeptide elution profile was modeled with a bi-Langmuir adsorption equilibrium isotherm. The isotherm parameters of the target polypeptide were estimated by the inverse method. The model parameters of the impurities were regressed from experimental data. The variations of the isotherm parameters with the modifier concentration and counter-ion concentration were taken into account of the adsorption model. After model calibration and validation by comparison with suitable experimental data, Pareto optimization of the process were carried out to analyze the differences between single gradient chromatography and double gradient chromatography. It was observed that the additional linear gradient of counter-ion concentration did not improve the separation process. Conclusively we were able to demonstrate the concept of double gradient reverse phase chromatography within limited time and possible least experimental efforts.

During the past few years, Building Information Modeling (BIM) started to gain acceptance within the AEC industry. But, as with many software products for project management, BIM currently faces significant issues and obstacles that hinder its widespread use. The broad goal of this study is to improve BIM implementation in mid-size firms during the Schematic Design (SD) and Design Development (DD) phases. The study has four main objectives. First, mapping the existing BIM related process model in mid-size firms, and modeling the flow of information between BIM users inside these firms. Second, identifying the challenges that are currently facing BIM users during the Schematic Design (SD) and Design Development (DD) phases, because of the importance of these phases in making critical decisions that directly affect the building life cycle. Then, linking these challenges to a BIM related business process model in order to identify when and how these issues occur. Third, exploring the structural conditions that may change or affect the BIM workflow. Fourth, the study proposes a new business process model that can enhance BIM implementation in mid-size firms. The study is qualitative in nature, and based on interviews with a sample of BIM users involved in mid-size firms in the USA. The researcher attempted to capture BIM issues and the flow of information between BIM users through case studies and interviews inside their firms. Also, the researcher involved a new group of BIM users in the research to seek their feedback, in order to generalize the research results. / Ph. D.

La problématique scientifique abordée correspond à la modélisation et à l'amélioration des processus métiers. Ce problème est d'un intérêt croissant pour les entreprises qui prennent conscience de l'impact indéniable que peuvent avoir une meilleure compréhension et une meilleure gestion des processus métiers (PM) sur l'efficacité, la cohérence et la transparence de leurs activités. Le travail envisagé dans le cadre de la thèse vise à proposer une méthode et un outil pour mesurer et améliorer la qualité des modèles de processus métier. L’originalité de l’approche est qu’elle vise non seulement la qualité syntaxique mais aussi la qualité sémantique et pragmatique en s’appuyant notamment sur les connaissances du domaine. / In recent years the problems related to modeling and improving business processes have been of growing interest. Indeed, companies are realizing the undeniable impact of a better understanding and management of business processes (BP) on the effectiveness, consistency, and transparency of their business operations. BP modeling aims at a better understanding of processes, allowing deciders to achieve strategic goals of the company. However, inexperienced systems analysts often lack domain knowledge leading and this affects the quality of models they produce.Our approach targets the problem related to business process modeling quality by proposing an approach encompassing methods and tools for business process (BP) models quality measurement and improvement. We propose to support this modeling effort with an approach that uses domain knowledge to improve the semantic quality of BP models.The main contribution of this thesis is fourfold:1. Exploiting the IS domain knowledge: A business process metamodel is identified.Semantics are added to the metamodel by the mean of OCL constraints.2. Exploiting the application domain knowledge. It relies on domain ontologies. Alignment between the concepts of both metamodels is defined and illustrated.3. Designing of the guided quality process encompassing methods and techniques to evaluate and improve the business process models. Our process propose many quality constraints and metrics in order to evaluat the quality of the models and finally the process propose relevant recommendations for improvement.4. Development of a software prototype “BPM-Quality”. Our prototype implements all theabove mentioned artifacts and proposes a workflow enabling its users to evaluate andimprove CMs efficiently and effectively.We conducted a survey to validate the selection of the quality constraints through a first experience and also conducted a second experiment to evaluate the efficacy and efficiency of our overall approach and proposed improvements.

The aim of the project is development of the tool Process Inspector for business process modeling and collecting informations from stakeholders. For new solution was estimated supporting other technologies. Microsoft MsSQL database server and .Net Framework offer great oportunities to do that. On the other hand there are user graphic interface requirements. Develop tool with intuitive interface and friendly face. Communication with other tools is important feature, we will discuss Business Process Visual Architect communication.

A method has been created that addresses the issues that prohibit the conversion of product artifacts into a secure, efficient and reliable Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) environment. These issues include automatic import of data into a PLM system and revision control of such data. A test case is shown which specifically addresses these issues as they pertain to the management of both legacy and new engineering data in a PLM system.

[pt] Este trabalho visa a modelagem de um processo convectivo de transferência de calor entre vapor de água e óleo. Estudam-se as diversas possibilidades de solução do sistema de equações diferenciais a derivadas parciais com coeficientes variáveis com o tempo, concluindo-se que o método de discretização no espaço é o de maior eficácia no caso presente. Uma vez obtido o modelo teórico aplica-se o método do modelo para a identificação dos parâmetros mediante técnicas de simulação no CSMP do computador IBM-1130. / [en] This work is concerned with the modeling of a convective heat transfer process between steam and oil. By studying the different ways of solution of two simultaneous partial differential equations with time dependent parameters, it is concluded that to lump the equations with respect to the spacial coordinates is the most useful method in the present exemple. Once the theoretical model is obtained, the model method is used to identify the parameters with the CSMP in the IBM-1130 computer.