Bob Snowdon

Elements of a business process management system: theory and practice

Purpose – To construct, test and illustrate a sophisticated and theory-based architecture for analyzing business process management systems (BPMS) used for business process change. Design/methodology/approach – Exploration of business process modeling-based BPMS via a meta-survey of academic and business literatures. Two main dimensions are used based upon semiotics and a block-based BPMS pyramid architecture. Each block is a core technology required for the functioning of the BPMS and include: the subject being modeled; the software formalism; the IT infrastructure; the modeling language and notation; and the underlying technical infrastructure. Findings – Theoretically explains and empirically illustrates each core technology in the proposed architecture then does the same for the architecture, its arrangement as a whole and its interrelationships. Recognizes the lack of a theoretical basis for business process modeling constructs and the dangers that this generates. Explains why automatic BPMS require formal construct transmission from subject modeled to modeling hardware and software. Research limitations/implications – The architecture’s core technologies span numerous disciplines so each set of literatures introduces the component concepts and their bases but is not exhaustive. Originality/value – This paper proposes a considerably more sophisticated framework for BPMS analysis than is currently available; it is theoretically and not just empirically based; it uses a novel method of theoretical justification concerned with the transmission of modeled properties and characteristics between several technological media; and it illustrates the innovative analytical use of this architecture and the practical use of BPMS with three different case vignettes.

Support for evolving software architectures in the ArchWare ADL

Software that cannot evolve is condemned to atrophy: it cannot accommodate the constant revision and re-negotiation of its business goals nor intercept the potential of new technology. To accommodate change in software systems, we have defined an active software architecture to be: dynamic in that the structure and cardinality of the components and interactions are changeable during execution; updatable in that components can be replaced; decomposable in that an executing system may be (partially) stopped and split up into its components and interactions; and reflective in that the specification of components and interactions may be evolved during execution. Here we describe the facilities of the ArchWare architecture description language (ADL) for specifying active architectures. The contribution of the work is the unique combination of concepts including: a /spl pi/-calculus based communication and expression language for specifying executable architectures; hyper-code as an underlying representation of system execution that can be used for introspection; a decomposition operator to incrementally break up executing systems; and structural reflection for creating new components and binding them into running systems.

A framework for supporting dynamic systems co-evolution

Abstract Businesses and their supporting software evolve to accommodate the constant revision and re-negotiation of commercial goals, and to intercept the potential of new technology. We have adopted the term co-evolution to describe the concept of the business and the software evolving sympathetically, but at potentially different rates. More generally, we extend co-evolution to accommodate wide-informatics systems, that are assembled from parts that co-evolve with each other and their environment, and whose behavior is potentially emergent. Typically these are long-lived systems in which dynamic co-evolution, whereby a system evolves as part of its own execution in reaction to both expected and unexpected events, is the only feasible option for change. Examples of such systems include continuously running business process models, sensor nets, grid applications, self-adapting/tuning systems, peer-to-peer routing systems, control systems, autonomic systems, and pervasive computing applications. The contribution of this paper comprises: a study of the intrinsic nature of dynamic co-evolving systems; the derivation of a set of intrinsic requirements; a description of a model and a set of technologies, new and extant, to meet these intrinsic requirements; and illustrations of how these technologies may be implemented within an architecture description language (ArchWare ADL) and a conventional programming language (Java). The model and technologies address three topics: structuring for dynamic co-evolution, incremental design, and adapting dynamic co-evolving systems. The combination yields a framework that can describe the system’s specification, the executing software and the reflective evolutionary mechanisms within a single computational domain in which all three may evolve in tandem.

A software architecture approach for structuring autonomic systems

Autonomic systems manage themselves given high-level objectives by their administrators. They utilise feedback from their own execution and their environment to self-adapt in order to satisfy their goals. An important consideration for such systems is a structure which is conducive to self-management. This paper presents a structuring methodology for autonomic systems which explicitly models self-adaptation while separating functionality and evolution. Our contribution is a software architecture-based framework combining an architecture description language based on π-calculus for describing the structure and behaviour of autonomic systems, a development methodology for evolution and mechanisms for feedback and change.

Active meta-process models: a conceptual exposition

Abstract The difficult and complex interactions between an organisation and its Information and Communications Technology (ICT) systems have presented process modelling research with a very fundamental challenge. From these concerns has emerged the concept of the active meta-process model. This sets out a conceptual basis for understanding the organisation/ICT relationship, and has the potential to influence ICT developments. The central concern of this paper is to develop the theoretical grounding of the idea of the active meta-process model. This concept has its lineage in process modelling research. Fundamentally, it is concerned with the relationship between organisations and ICT systems and, in particular, the notion that ICT systems should be viewed as providing an active canvas supporting the organisation. A conceptual exposition is developed by reference to cybernetic theory through the Viable System Model. The paper advocates an holistic and systemic approach to the comprehension and realisation of the ICT/organisational relationship which necessarily requires (a) an understanding of all of the behaviours of an organisation (including specifically the meta behaviours) and (b) a systemic and architectural view of how ICT systems should be formed in order to address the needs of organisations as systems. The outcome of this is a superior conceptual grounding for the notion of active meta-process models, and insights into how the concept might influence practice.

The viable systems model applied to a smart network: the case of the UK electricity market

We investigate the concept of Smart Business Networks by using Beers Viable System Model (VSM) to analyse how such a network mitigates the affect of emergent, and therefore unforecastable, demands upon the networked businesses. We examine the requirements for network smartness, highlight some significant properties of one Smart Network and use our case analysis and concepts from systems theory to suggest some general properties such as natural stability and distributed capability. We have found that smartness is distributed and shared behavioural process standards can act to stabilise complex systems. This is important because it mitigates emergent behaviour within increasingly complex business networks. The contributions of our article apply both to academics and business practitioners and are in its illustration and investigation of one Smart Business Network including how the smart capability functions at a strategic, business process and technical level; and the use of Beers VSM to analyse an electricity market.

Process support for evolving active architectures

Long-lived, architecture-based software systems are increasingly important. Effective process support for these systems depends upon recognising their compositional nature and the active role of their architecture in guiding evolutionary development. Current process approaches have difficulty with run-time architecture changes that are not known a priori, and dealing with extant data during system evolution. This paper describes an approach that deals with these issues. It is based on a process-aware architecture description language (ADL), with explicit compose and decompose constructs, and with a hyper-code representation for dealing with extant data and code. An example is given to illustrate the ease-of-use benefits of this approach.

Support for feedback and change in self-adaptive systems

Self-adaptive systems modify their own behaviour in response to stimuli from their operating environments. The major policy considerations for such systems are determining what, when and how adaptations should be carried out. This paper presents mechanisms for feedback and change that support policy decisions for self-adaptation within a computationally complete architecture description language based on the π-calculus. Our contribution is support for feedback through software-encoded probes, gauges and an event distribution network together with support for change through decomposition, reification, reflection, recomposition and hyper-code.

Electronic Commerce Strategy in the UK Electricity Industry: The Case of Electric Co and Dataflow Software

This paper investigates the collective use of a simple modeling technology by highly complex, heterogeneous and numerous groups of stakeholders who heavily depend upon it to mediate their interactions. We use economic theory, design theory, complex systems theory and business process modeling concepts to analyze deregulation and business to business interaction in the UK electricity industry, and the strategic business and IT response of Electric Co, a large electricity supply company. The relevance of this study comes from its investigation of a novel example of the shaping of a whole sector’s e-business through regulatory law and thus we are concerned with enterprise and inter-enterprise systems not purely with ERP systems. We focus on model-based business interaction and its effect upon the business and consumer behaviors of a whole country’s electricity sector. This sector is a socio-technical system; so business processes and consumer behaviors are not only shaped by the regulator’s legally enforced business to business process interaction model, but the opinions of businesses and the public also influence how the regulator updates its model. Thus business behaviors, consumer behaviors and the model interact to shape each other. By moving from intra to inter-organizational business processes we seek to demonstrate and explain the value of models in e-business where the complexity of interacting business systems involves many thousands of parameters. We show how developments in technical standards and business process management are related to inter-organizational interaction and coordination.

Circles of Customer Need: A Contribution to Customer-Centric Service Provision in a Local Community

This chapter explores the concept of customer-centric service provision in a local community and how it could work. It is based on past projects and on-going work at Chorley Borough Council on Circles of Customer Need. This approach applies holistic living or open-systems approaches to front-line customer engagement.