Web services are increasingly gaining acceptance as a framework for facilitating application-to-application interactions within and across enterprises. It is commonly accepted that a service description should include not only the interface, but also the business protocol supported by the service. The present work focuses on the formalization of the important category of protocols that include time-related constraints (called timed protocols), and the impact of time on compatibility and replaceability analysis. We formalized the following timing constraints: CInvoke constraints define time windows of availability while MInvoke constraints define expirations deadlines. We extended techniques for compatibility and replaceability analysis between timed protocols by using a semantic-preserving mapping between timed protocols and timed automata, leading to the novel class of protocol timed automata (PTA). Specifically, PTA exhibit silent transitions that cannot be removed in general, yet they are closed under complementation, making every type of compatibility or replaceability analysis decidable. Finally, we implemented our approach in the context of a larger project called ServiceMosaic, a model-driven framework for web service life-cycle management.

Web services are increasingly gaining acceptance as a framework for facilitating application-to-application interactions within and across enterprises. It is commonly accepted that a service description should include not only the interface, but also the business protocol supported by the service. The present work focuses on the formalization of the important category of protocols that include time-related constraints (called timed protocols), and the impact of time on compatibility and replaceability analysis. We formalized the following timing constraints: CInvoke constraints define time windows of availability while MInvoke constraints define expirations deadlines. We extended techniques for compatibility and replaceability analysis between timed protocols by using a semantic-preserving mapping between timed protocols and timed automata, leading to the novel class of protocol timed automata (PTA). Specifically, PTA exhibit silent transitions that cannot be removed in general, yet they are closed under complementation, making every type of compatibility or replaceability analysis decidable. Finally, we implemented our approach in the context of a larger project called ServiceMosaic, a model-driven framework for web service life-cycle management.

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Syfte – Studiens syfte har varit att öka förståelsen för de effekter som kan uppstå genom en kompetensväxling när detta sker genom en fördelning och omfördelning av arbetsuppgifter till en ny yrkeskategori. Syftet har också varit att undersöka vilken roll styrning har i att påverka dessa effekter. För att undersöka syftet har följande forskningsfrågor adresserats; (1) Vilken påverkan har en kompetensväxling på de professioner vilka möts av ett sådant koncept? (2) Hur kan styrmedel förstärka positiv och lindra negativ påverkan av en kompetensväxling? Metod – Multipel fallstudiedesign av en kvalitativ art med en kombinerad induktiv och deduktiv ansats. Insamling av data har skett genom semistrukturerade intervjuer med undersköterskor, sjuksköterskor och ledning inom Region Norrbotten. Den insamlade datan har analyserats med hjälp av tematisk analys.  Resultat – Resultatet visar att en kompetensväxling, när detta sker genom en fördelning och omfördelning av arbetsuppgifter till en ny yrkeskategori, påverkar professioner både arbetsmässigt såsom personligt. Fem teman kopplade till påverkan har identifierats: rädsla för övertalighet, minskad stress i arbetet, arbetsglädje, skepsis mot servicepersonalens vårdkännedom samt effektivitet. Resultatet visar även att styrmedel kan ha en betydande roll för hur denna påverkan tar sitt uttryck och att ledningen därmed har en stor roll här att spela.  Teoretiska implikationer – Studien bidrar med en djupare förståelse kring kompetensväxling när detta sker genom en fördelning och omfördelning av arbetsuppgifter till en ny yrkeskategori. Studien bidrar även med insikter gällande en sådan kompetensväxlings påverkan på yrkesverksamma vilka möts av ett sådant koncept. Ett annat teoretiskt bidrag är en belysning av en sådan organisationsförändring i kombination med styrning.  Praktiska implikationer – Vårt resultat antyder att styrmedel kan ha en betydande roll för utfallen av en kompetensväxling. Vi ser därför att vårt resultat kan fungera som ett stöd för personer inom en ledningsposition vilka står inför utmaningen att införa ett liknande koncept inom sin organisation. Vi ser också att studien kan fungera som ett beslutsunderlag för chefer och högre beslutsfattare vilka utforskar möjligheterna att hantera en hög arbetsbelastning och personalbrist. / Purpose – The purpose of this study has been to increase the understanding of the effects that can emerge through task-shifting when it occurs through an allocation and distribution of work assignments to a new occupation. The purpose has also been to examine the management control systems role in affecting these effects. To investigate this purpose, following research questions have been addressed; (1) What effect does task-shifting have on the professions that face such a concept? (2) How can management control systems increase positive and alleviate negative effects of task-shifting?  Method – Multiple case study of a qualitative character with a combined inductive and deductive approach. Collection of data has occurred through semi-structured interviews with orderlies, nurses and management within Region Norrbotten. The collected data has been analyzed through thematic analysis.   Result – The result shows that task-shifting, when this occurs through an allocation and distribution of work assignments to a new occupation, affects professions both operationally as well as personally. Five themes linked to effects have been identified: fear of redundancy, reduced stress at work, job satisfaction, skepticism towards the service personnel’s understanding of healthcare and efficiency. The result also indicates that management control systems can have a considerable role in how this effect is manifested and that management therefore has a big part to play.  Theoretical implications – This study contributes with a deeper understanding regarding task-shifting when this occurs through an allocation and distribution of work assignments to a new occupation. This study also contributes with insights regarding such a concepts effect on professionals that face such a concept. Another theoretical contribution is the illumination of such an organizational change in combination with management control systems.  Practical implications – Our result indicates that management control systems can have a significant role in the outcomes of task-shifting. Therefore our result can function as support for individuals within a management position who face the challenge of implementing a similar concept within their organization. Furthermore we also see the study’s potential of being a basis for managers and higher-ups decision making who are exploring different opportunities of managing a high workload and staff shortages.

Actuellement, la technologie des services Web évolue rapidement, en étant soutenue par les grands acteurs du domaine des systèmes d'information. Les applications basés sur services Web sont faiblement couplées et utilisables de façon automatique via l'utilisation d'un ensemble de normes basées sur XML. Hormis la description syntaxique des messages, il est nécessaire d’avoir une description sémantique du comportement des services. En effet, lors de la conception d'un service ou lors d'une composition de services, il est important de vérifier la conformité avec un cahier des charges. L’enrichissement des descriptions des services par l’inclusion de leurs comportements est de plus en plus important. Ce comportement peut être décrit par des protocoles métier représentant les séquences possibles d'échanges de messages. Les services Web utilisent des politiques de contrôle d'accès (ACP) pour restreindre l'accès à des consommateurs autorisés. Ces politiques doivent faire partie de la description du service. Dans cette thèse, l'analyse d'interopérabilité en termes de contrôle d’accès après la formalisation des services Web annotés avec les politiques de contrôle d’accès est réalisée. Nous présentons une approche pour intégrer les outils de vérification dans l'architecture de contrôle d’accès de façon à garantir une interaction sans erreurs. Les politiques et les crédits sont présentés comme une ontologie afin de bénéficier de la flexibilité offerte par subsomption sur des concepts. La chorégraphie des services Web est utilisée dans la phase de conception d’applications pair à pair complexes dans lesquelles chaque pair peut être implémenté par un service Web. Par conséquent, la sélection des services Web pour l’implémentation de chorégraphie en utilisant l’approche de vérification de compatibilité avec contrôle d'accès est l'un des objectifs de notre recherche. Dans ce travail, les modèles de protocole métier du service Web sont étendus en ajoutant des informations au message sur chaque transition du service dans lequel ce message sera envoyé ou reçu. Nous définissons et vérifions la compatibilité des services Web afin de voir si (et comment) plusieurs services peuvent avoir des interactions en fonction de leurs protocoles. Cette approche aidera les concepteurs à choisir des services Web de manière simple et à vérifier s’ils peuvent mettre en œuvre la chorégraphie nécessaire en vérifiant la compatibilité avec notre approche / Currently, Web services technology is rapidly move forward supported by major players in the field of information systems. Web services applications are loosely coupled and usable in an automatic way via the use of a set of standards based on XML. Beside the syntactic description of messages, there is a need for the semantic description of the behavior of services. Indeed, whether in the design of a service or composition of services, it is important to check compliance with a set of specifications. Enriching services descriptions by including their behaviors is becoming more and more important. This behavior can be described by business protocols representing the possible sequences of message exchanges. Web services use access control policies (ACP) to restrict the access to authorized consumer. These policies should be a part of the service description. In this thesis, the interoperability analysis in terms of AC after the formalization of the Web services annotated with the access control (AC) is performed. In addition, we present an approach for embedding the checking tools in the AC enforcement architecture to guarantee the errors free interaction. The ACP and the credentials are presented as ontology in order to benefit from the flexibility offered by subsumption on concepts. Web services choreography is used in the design phase of complex peer-to-peer applications in which each peer can be implemented by a Web service. Therefore, selecting Web services for choreography implementation using the compatibility checking approach with access control is one of the objectives of our research. In this work, the business protocol models of the Web service are extended by adding information to the message on each transition about the service in which this message will sent to or received from. We define and verify Web service compatibility in order to see if (and how) several services can have interactions based on their protocols. This approach will help the designers to select Web services in an easy way and verify if they can implement the required choreography or not by checking the compatibly using our approach