Cezary Orłowski

VALIDATION OF AN AGENT AND ONTOLOGY-BASED INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY ASSESSMENT SYSTEM

The aim of this article is to present a new method of the validation of an agent and ontology-based information technology assessment system. The characteristics of the proposed multi-agent system are presented followed by a description of some important details regarding the ontology functionality of this system. Then an approach to its verification process is proposed. The approach employs a semantic description of system variables and implements a knowledge representation model in ontology web language (OWL). The article concludes with an illustrative case study for the presented methodology.

IT business standards as an ontology domain

The aim of this paper is to report a selection of Semantic Web aspects pertaining to ontology development activities in the domain of the IT business standard (TOGAF 9) such as formulating competency questions, conceptualization of the domain, resolution of the source knowledge deficiency and applying common design patterns in the OWL formalization. Authors also try to determine target groups that may benefit from such ontology models.

HYBRID MODEL OF THE EVOLUTION OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY IT SUPPORT ORGANIZATION

This article presents and discusses comprehensive development stages of an integrated, general model of the evolution of support organization enhancing information technology (IT) systems of a corporation. Both advantages and disadvantages of the proposed model are analyzed and future research directions communicated. This article signals one of the current efforts toward addressing the challenges of a very dynamic transformation of IT support in a real-life environment.

Ontology as a tool for the IT management standards support

In this paper the authors discuss the initial idea of using ontologies to model requirements of the standards that support IT management processes. The Open Group Architecture Framework (TOGAF) is set as an example. A need for transition from the generic model do the organization-specific one is indicated. The described example serves as a ground for considering the usefulness of such modeling approach in the wider spectrum of projects in the production engineering/process management fields.

Model of rules for IT organization evolution

The aim of this paper is to introduce the Model of Rules for IT Organization Evolution which shall be in compliance with the Generic IT Organization Evolution Model. Due to its general nature, a set of practical adjustments is proposed in order to adapt the Generic Model to the IT Service Management domain. Further, two sets of rules describing the evolution of the IT Service Management area are defined based on two types of rules introduced herein (i.e. descriptive and dynamic ones). Moreover, the results of business verification of the model are discussed. Finally, a new model of rules, carefully redesigned according to the verification stage, is proposed. In this paper two levels of rules are introduced --- operational and tactical ones, and usefulness of the Event-Driven Process Chain notation for development of the final version of the model of rules is presented.

Knowledge management based on dynamic and self-adjusting fuzzy models

The objective of this paper is to present a knowledge management based on dynamic and self-adjusting fuzzy models. Specifically, the proposed approach is founded on a knowledge-based methodology and theories of dynamic systems and fuzzy sets. A preliminary design of our fuzzy model takes advantage of the experience from managing of IT projects. Relevant experimental data resulting from these projects are utilized for adjusting the membership functions of the fuzzy model applied in the knowledge-based decision-support system.

Evaluation of Information Technology Projects

The article signals an important problem of Information Technology (IT) projects evaluation. The authors suggest an approach that combines qualitative and quantitative techniques, focusing on representing a number of elements of project description using fundamentals of fuzzy logic. The applied techniques include fuzzification of project conditions using the membership function, inference using the rule description, and defuzzification of output data.

Advanced Modeling of Management Processes in Information Technology

This book deals with the issues of modelling management processes of information technology and IT projects while its core is the model of information technology management and its component models (contextual, local) describing initial processing and the maturity capsule as well as a decision-making system represented by a multi-level sequential model of IT technology selection, which acquires a fuzzy rule-based implementation in this work.In terms of applicability, this work may also be useful for diagnosing applicability of IT standards in evaluation of IT organizations. The results of this diagnosis might prove valid for those preparing new standards so that apart from their own visions they could, to an even greater extent, take into account the capabilities and needs of the leaders of project and manufacturing teams.The book is intended for IT professionals using the ITIL, COBIT and TOGAF standards in their work. Students of computer science and management who are interested in the issue of IT project and technology management are also likely to benefit from this study. For young students of IT, it can serve as a source of knowledge in the field of information technology evaluation. This book is also designed for specialists in modelling socio-technical systems.

Intelligent Knowledge-Based Model for IT Support Organization Evolution

The goal of the paper is building the knowledge-based model for predicting the state of the IT support organization. These organizations are facing the problem of their transformation. The complexity of the processes, the difficulty adjusting the operations and limited ability to control the evolution implies the need of the solutions supporting the decision-makers to make the change happen. The solutions are based on systems gathering and processing the knowledge, built in the research units for the support of business organizations. The paper is the example of the applying this research for the banking sector. The result of the research is the intelligent, knowledge-based system used for the assessment of the organization and support the evolution of the organizations based on fuzzy modeling and mechanisms of reasoning using uncertain and incomplete knowledge and classification according to the ITIL (IT Infrastructure Library) model. The sources of the knowledge are the authors’ experiences in managing the IT support organization in the banking sector. The paper presents the results in two areas. One of them is the financial sector, for which we propose the prognostic model for the IT support organization. The second is the selection of reasoning in social systems with uncertain and incomplete knowledge. In the paper we present the mechanisms of reasoning based on the knowledge and data in the research in the evolution of the IT support organization in the financial institution. The publication contains the description of the assumptions of the experiment, the experiment itself, the analysis of its results and conclusions.

KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT BASED ON FORMAL MODELS OF SOFTWARE PROJECT MANAGEMENT

The objective of this paper is to present a complete conception of decision support systems for software project management. The idea is founded on dynamic and self-adjusting fuzzy models. Specifically, the propsed approach is founded on the knowledge-based methodology and the theories of dynamic systems and fuzzy sets. The presented method can be used in manufacturing of knowledge-based Information Technology (IT) products. A preliminary design of a fuzzy model can take advantage of experience from managing projects. Relevant experimental data resulting from such projects can then be utilized for adjusting the membership functions of the fuzzy model applied in the knowledge-based decistion-support system.