nach oben

2014 | Buch

Kapitel lesen Erstes Kapitel lesen

Advances in Enterprise Engineering VIII

4th Enterprise Engineering Working Conference, EEWC 2014, Funchal, Madeira Island, Portugal, May 5-8, 2014. Proceedings

herausgegeben von: David Aveiro, José Tribolet, Duarte Gouveia

Verlag: Springer International Publishing

Buchreihe : Lecture Notes in Business Information Processing

Enthalten in: Springer Professional "Wirtschaft+Technik" , Springer Professional "Technik" , Springer Professional "Wirtschaft"

Einloggen, um Zugang zu erhalten

Über dieses Buch

This book constitutes the proceedings of the 4th Enterprise Engineering Working Conference (EEWC), held in Funchal, Madeira Island, Portugal, during May 5-8, 2014. EEWC aims at addressing the challenges that modern and complex enterprises are facing in a rapidly changing world. The participants of the working conference share a belief that dealing with these challenges requires rigorous and scientific solutions, focusing on the design and engineering of enterprises. The goal of EEWC is to stimulate interaction between the different stakeholders, scientists, as well as practitioners, interested in making enterprise engineering a reality.

The 13 papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected for inclusion in the book. EEWC 2014 had 42 submissions and accepted 13 for publication. The topics of the presented papers allowed for active participation in interesting discussions and exchange of ideas and stimulated future cooperation among the participants. This made EEWC a real “working conference” contributing to the further development of enterprise engineering as a mature discipline. Topics covered include: enterprise engineering in general, the DEMO methodology, the REA ontology, financial applications, business processes management and enterprise simulation.

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Frontmatter

On Enterprise Engineering and DEMO

The Nature of the Enterprise Engineering Discipline

Abstract

Enterprise engineering originated as a practice with most publications focusing on the practical facets without the underlying scientific foundation. Foundational works emerged from different authors in recent years, including Dietz, Hoogervorst and Giachetti. According to Gregor, the bodies of knowledge or theories encompassed in a discipline need to address questions related to four classes namely: the domain, structural or ontological, epistemological, and socio-political. As a departure point for setting a research agenda for EE, we argue that the four classes of questions could also serve as a basis to determine an EE research agenda. In this paper we argue that a research agenda for EE should start with the first class of questions, concerning the domain of the discipline and suggest that an existing model, the Enterprise Evolution Contextualisation Model (EECM), could be used to define the domain of the EE discipline.

Marne de Vries, Aurona Gerber, Alta van der Merwe

What Does DEMO Do? A Qualitative Analysis about DEMO in Practice: Founders, Modellers and Beneficiaries

Abstract

Our goal in this exploratory study is to gain insights about the actual use of DEMO. As we aim at understanding how the use of DEMO influences its context of use and is influenced by it, the study is based on a qualitative approach. 13 stakeholders acquainted with DEMO were interviewed. As DEMO is an artefact, design science literature is relevant to reflect upon the observation of DEMO in practice. We investigated and analysed the views of DEMO founders, DEMO modellers and DEMO beneficiaries about DEMO definition, purpose and scope, results, ease and context of use. We used a subset of criteria of progress for information systems design theories to observe DEMO. Interview results are then exposed and analysed.

Céline Décosse, Wolfgang A. Molnar, Henderik A. Proper

A Pension System Redesign Case - Limitations and Improvements on DEMO

Abstract

There are many methodologies and methods proposed for modeling Business Processes. Each of them has advantages and disadvantages. In this research we focus on Business Process Redesign in order to reveal limitations on the current syntax of DEMO and also its way of working. DEMO has been proven and recognized as an effective modeling method for business process at design level. However, the effectiveness of DEMO in the case of redesign of business process is not sufficiently documented.

In this study, we applied DEMO to model the Industry Pension System utilizing the National Identification Number in Japan in order to investigate the effectiveness of applying DEMO in redesigning. We discuss the effectiveness and limitations of DEMO in redesign based on the Construction and Process Models. Consequently, we propose additional constructs to be added to DEMO’s syntax, as well as some guidelines for DEMO’s way of working in redesign situations. A new notation system for the improvement of DEMO is also discussed in our research.

Akiyoshi Araki, Junichi Iijima

A New Action Rule Syntax for DEmo MOdels Based Automatic worKflow procEss geneRation (DEMOBAKER)

Abstract

The current way of specifying Action Rules in the Design and Engineering Methodology for Organizations (DEMO) is ambiguous and leads to incomplete specifications that do not contain enough ontological information so that we can more systematically convert DEMO models to comprehensive Business Process Management and Notation (BPMN). With our proposal we now can specify – still at an ontological level – much more needed details and essential information for a more complete and close to automatic generation of BPMN models. Action rules are also the perfect spot to already specify functional and implementation requirements for the information systems supporting the Workflow Management System running such BPMN models. Thus we also contribute to bridge the huge gap between DEMO models and important implementation issues that arise at design time and should immediately be specified together with ontological elements.

Carlos Figueira, David Aveiro

On Value and Finance

Detailed Analysis of REA Ontology

Abstract

The paper addresses REA (Resource-Event-Agent) domain specific ontology that is primarily focused on value modeling in business processes. REA ontology which historically originates from accounting information systems, gradually developed to cover all areas where value modeling can be utilized. After a short introduction, a core REA pattern is introduced and analyzed from the view of its basic entities and the relationships between them. Next, additional crucial concepts of REA ontology and their relationships are gradually elucidated and analyzed from the view of DEMO (Design & Engineering Methodology for Organizations). The paper also describes the current definition of economic transaction that is used as a basis for REA state machine. The discussion and conclusion sections summarize and assess the pros and cons of REA ontology and propose a way forward for further research.

Frantisek Hunka, Jaroslav Zacek

Evaluating Accounting Information Systems That Support Multiple GAAP Reporting Using Normalized Systems Theory

Abstract

This paper uses a mixed methods approach of design science and case study research to evaluate structures of Accounting Information Systems (AIS) that report in multiple Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP), using Normalized Systems Theory (NST). To comply with regulation, many companies need to apply multiple GAAP. In case studies we identify AIS structures for multiple GAAP reporting. AIS need to cope with changes in GAAP and regulation in an evolvable way, the impact of the changes needs to be bounded. Since NST provides guidelines to design modular structures (in software) with an ex-ante proven degree of evolvability [1], we use NST to evaluate the identified AIS structures. We list violations of NST principles (combinatorial effects) and describe their manifestation in the cases. This application of NST in accounting demonstrates its relevance in non-software-specific domains. Moreover this is the first evaluation of an AIS with respect to evolvability.

Els Vanhoof, Philip Huysmans, Walter Aerts, Jan Verelst

Modeling Financial Statement Preparation of a SME Enterprise by an Accountancy Firm

Abstract

Information requirements of business actors serve as basic specifications for the design of information processes. However, most enterprises in the SME domain lack the information process for annually preparing the financial statement. This is not uncommon because preparing the financial statement is usually done by an external independent accountant. Preparing the financial statement does not only mean carrying out a sequence of logical steps, but it also means taking decisions about several issues, for example, the current value of fixed assets, the amount of obsolete stock and doubtful accounts. This paper discusses the fulfillment of actor roles through the accountant. Some of these actor roles are defined in the demanding organization; others are defined in the accountancy organization. This paper exhibits the construction models of the business organization as well as of the infological organization from both organizations. It provides a clear view about the responsibilities of the accountancy firm towards the demanding enterprise. The models exhibit that the business organization of the accountancy firm does not include only ontological transactions but also infological transactions.

Joop de Jong

Linking Value Chains – Combining e3Value and DEMO for Specifying Value Networks

Abstract

In this paper we provide a model for the bonding of systems in a value network. Our main contributions are: 1) a structural model of the chains and their viewpoints, and 2) a specification of how to use that structure within a process that supports the formalization of the rationale behind system development decisions. To provide a solution to this challenge we combine System Development and Value Modeling disciplines. From DEMO, we use the Generic System Development Process from the Tao-theory and its Value-oriented System Development Process implementation. We formalize basic concepts from e3Value, namely start stimulus, end stimulus, gates and scenario paths in an integrated way with system construction models. We provide a methodology for constructing e3Value models systematically and improve DEMO modeling by devising individual value networks in an adequate way and how different system components combine to form them.

João Pombinho, José Tribolet, David Aveiro

On Business Processes and Use Cases

ECO-FOOTPRINT: An Innovation in Enterprise System Customization Processing

Abstract

In the overall ownership cost of enterprise system, the maintenance cost consists of a major percentage. During the lifetime of an enterprise system, process customization is the most frequent maintenance efforts. However, current processing method has limited scalability and efficiency. In this case study, we explained how a scalable and efficient customization processing method was implemented. This method used the carbon emission trading mechanism to facilitate the cost benefit analysis of customization request. It also used distributed processing principle to improve the overall processing efficiency. Feedback from a pilot implementation in a large manufacturer included.

Yun Wan, Vishnupriya Kalidindi

Automatic Model Transformation for Enterprise Simulation

Abstract

In order to simulate business process models, either an additional mapping schema is developed or the models are translated into other diagrams that can be used as a conceptual model of simulation. However, most existing methods require manual transformation, and they have made troublesome and time consuming when the business process models are complex. Thus, the application of such translation method is limited. In this research, we conducted a Model Driven Framework base transformation to semi-automatically transform DEMO aspect models into DEVS executable model. Contribution of this research could be concluded as: (1) It makes DEMO model “really executable” and becomes more helpful in BPR; (2) It provides a suitable and well supported formalism and semantics for conceptual model for discrete event related enterprise simulation; (3) It helps developer semi-automatically generate a simulation model which provide better support for enterprise simulation development; (4) DEMO based DEVS definition could be implemented in other simulation platform for better practice.

Yang Liu, Junichi Iijima

Introducing a Framework for Scalable Dynamic Process Discovery

Abstract

Businesses are becoming increasingly globally interconnected and need to continuously adapt to global market changes and trends in order to stay competitive. Business processes are fundamental parts and drivers of these globally connected organizations which is why their management, analysis, and optimization are of utmost importance. Discovering and understanding the actual execution flow of processes deployed in your organization is an important enabler for these tasks. However, this has become increasingly difficult since business processes are now mostly distributed over different systems, highly dynamic, and may produce thousands of events per second which may conform to a number of different formats. These particular challenges are currently not specifically accounted for in the research field of Process Discovery. In order to address these challenges, this paper presents a concept for scalable dynamic process discovery, which is a scalable solution for identifying and keeping up with the evolution of dynamic, collaborative business processes. Furthermore, a framework for this concept is proposed along with the requirements and implementation details for the involved components and models.

David Redlich, Wasif Gilani, Thomas Molka, Marc Drobek, Awais Rashid, Gordon Blair

From Business Process Models to Use Case Models: A Systematic Approach

Abstract

One of the most difficult, and crucial, activities in software development is the identification of system functional requirements. A popular way to capture and describe those requirements is through UML use case models. A business process model identifies the activities, resources and data involved in the creation of a product or service, having lots of useful information for developing a supporting software system. During system analysis, most of this information must be incorporated into use case descriptions. This paper proposes an approach to support the construction of use case models based on business process models. The proposed approach obtains a complete use case model, including the identification of actors, use cases and the corresponding descriptions, which are created from a set of predefined natural language sentences mapped from BPMN model elements.

Estrela Ferreira Cruz, Ricardo J. Machado, Maribel Yasmina Santos

Approach for Semi-automatic Extraction of Business Vocabularies and Rules from Use Case Diagrams

Abstract

The main purpose of this paper is to explore the possibilities to extract well-structured business vocabularies and rules from the formalized requirements specifications expressed via use case diagrams; Object Management Group’s (OMG) standards, namely Semantics of Business Vocabularies and Business Rules (SBVR) and Unified Modeling Language (UML), are used for this purpose. The paper concentrates on a semi-automatic extraction approach by proposing UML2SBVR mapping matrix, extraction algorithm and implementation prototype. An experiment and the evaluation of its results are discussed to prove the usability of the presented approach.

Tomas Skersys, Paulius Danenas, Rimantas Butleris

Backmatter

Titel: Advances in Enterprise Engineering VIII
herausgegeben von: David Aveiro
José Tribolet
Duarte Gouveia
Verlag: Springer International Publishing
Electronic ISBN: 978-3-319-06505-2
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-06504-5
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-06505-2