Jason Nichols

Autonomic workflow execution in the grid

Mobile agents are being leveraged in both workflow management and grid computing contexts. The convergence of these two research streams supports execution in the grid where tasks are allowed to vary in their level of interdependence. The result is an expansion of grid applications beyond those which consist of homogeneous computations decomposed and performed in parallel to those which support the parallel execution of sequences of interdependent tasks that constitute a workflow. However, grid computation of critical workflows requires that the grid platform exhibits the autonomic characteristic of self-healing in order to ensure workflow execution. To address this issue, in this work, we first develop a model for dynamic fault tolerance technique selection, which can be embedded generically in a mobile agent workflow management system. We then augment an existing architecture for flexible fault tolerance in the grid with our model, thus allowing the system to optimally configure its fault tolerance mechanisms through awareness of the computational environment. The result is a foundation for autonomic workflow management in the grid

IT services project management: lessons learned from a case study in implementation

Project management has gained unprecedented popularity worldwide as companies strive to become more productive, respond quickly to customer needs and stay competitive. However, implementing and managing a formal project-management system is becoming harder as organisations become larger and more complex, the number of the projects undertaken at any given time increases and delivery times become shorter (Levy and Globerson, 2002). This paper includes a review of some of the major multiproject management issues and presents a case study of a successful integrated project-office implementation. Based on the details of the case, a systematic framework that includes the roles and responsibilities, organisational styles and staffing process of an effective project-office programme is developed. Practical guidelines for implementation are presented based on the case and the resulting framework.

Ensuring reliability in B2B services: Fault tolerant inter-organizational workflows

In the age of Business-to-Business (B2B) collaboration, ensuring reliability of workflows underlying inter-organizational business processes is of significant importance. There are, however, quite a few challenges towards achieving seamless operation. Such challenges arise from heterogeneity in infrastructure and coordination mechanism at participant organizations, as well as time and cost associated with recovery from failure. Our research presents foundations for a reliable scheme for recovery from failure of workflow processes spanning through multiple business entities. First, a system model is adapted from the mobile computing literature that serves to establish the requirements to be enforced by each participating organization. In our model, we adopt the Maximal Sequence Path (MSP) approach from Yoo et al. (Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence 2132:222–236, 2001), as a means of decomposing workflows into mobile agent-driven processes that communicate via web services at each organization. This decomposition ensures defining logical points within the dynamics of a workflow instance for locating accurate and consistent states of the system for recovery in case of a failure. Then, a set of algorithms for various business scenarios are developed and presented as practical solutions. These algorithms are shown to create checkpoints such that the system is always in a globally consistent state. As such, these algorithms constitute a set of standards that can be incorporated in business process management suites that support reliable inter-organizational collaboration.

Synergizing the Artificial Intelligence and Decision Support Research Streams: Over a Decade of Progress with New Challenges on the Horizon

Over the past two decades, the convergence of artificial intelligence and decision support technologies has driven individual, team, and organizational computing research and practice in exciting new directions. In 1992, Goul, et al. examined the patterns of a decade of progress and developed propositions regarding the direction and impact of intelligent decision support systems. A decade later, the propositions from 1992 have proven an insightful roadmap for breakthroughs in the individual, team, and organizational streams of intelligent decision support research. In this chapter, we reflect on the patterns of progress over the last ten years, compare them with the propositions put forth in 1992, and offer new perspectives based on an emerging stream in the literature base: intelligent interorganizational decision support. Interorganizational support represents the next generation of intelligent decision support, and the new domain brings with it new challenges and opportunities. We look to patterns in both the maturing streams of individual, team, and organizational intelligent decision support, as well as those emerging in the new interorganizational stream, to propose direction for and identify significant challenges to be addressed in future work as intelligent decision support research enters its third decade.

Towards a Model of Fault Tolerance Technique Selection in Static and Dynamic Agent-Based Inter-Organizational Workflow Management Systems

Research in workflow management systems design references the mobile agent computing paradigm where agents have been shown to increase the total capacity of a workflow system through the decoupling of execution management from a statically designated workflow engine, although coordinating fault tolerance mechanisms has been shown to be a downside due to increased overall execution times. To address this issue, we develop a model for comparing the effects of two fault tolerance techniques: local and remote checkpointing. The model enables an examination of fault tolerance coordination impacts on execution time while concomitantly taking into account the dynamic nature of a workflow environment. A proposed use for the model includes providing for selecting and configuring agent-based fault tolerance approaches based on changes in environmental variables - an approach that allows the owners of a workflow management system to reap the scaling efficiency benefits of the mobile agent paradigm without being forced to make trade-offs in execution performance.

Toward Alignment Between Communities of Practice and Knowledge-Based Decision Support

The National Repository of Digital Forensics Information (NRDFI) is a knowledge repository for law enforcement digital forensics investigators (LEDFI). Over six years, the NRDFI has undertaken significant design revisions in order to more closely align the architecture of the system with theory addressing motivation to share knowledge and communication within ego-centric groups and communities of practice. These revisions have been met with minimal change in usage patterns by LEDFI community members, calling into question the applicability of relevant theory when the domain for knowledge sharing activities expands beyond the confines of an individual organization to a community of practice. When considered alongside an empirical study that demonstrated a lack of generalizability for existing theory on motivators to share knowledge, a call for deeper investigation is clear. In the current study, researchers apply grounded theory methodology through interviews with members of the LEDFI community to discover aspects of community context that appear to position communities of practice along a continuum between process focus and knowledge focus. Findings suggest that these contextual categories impact a community’s willingness to participate in various classes of knowledge support initiatives, and community positioning along these categories dictates prescription for design of knowledge based decision support systems beyond that which can be found in the current literature.

Reconsidering modular design rules in a dynamic service context

Modular design rules are rooted in a tradition of process design for physical production. In response to an emerging information systems research agenda for design logic in the realm of services and digital goods, and through the lens of dynamic capabilities theory, the research presented here reexamines traditional modular design in the context of a service-centric volatile marketplace. A complex adaptive systems simulation artifact from prior literature is augmented with a novel operationalization of market volatility, and a series of hypotheses are tested that demonstrate a need for revision of modular design rules in a dynamic context. Rules that have historically isolated the modular design decision to characterizations of task interaction are expanded to incorporate a new objective: adaptive parity with the environment. It is the goal of this continuing research stream to make early contributions in the recently proposed agenda for new organizing logic in digital innovation and services.

A model of Service-Oriented Architecture and firm/network performance

In this paper, we seek to lay a foundation for the analysis of the relationships between SOA and previously discovered antecedents to organisational performance. We review the fundamentals of SOA and the literature regarding IT and firm performance, and we present a research model for examining the impact of SOA and other firms resources/capabilities on the performance of a firm and a value network. Our analysis and propositions provide guidelines for future research and knowledge advancement in the area of SOA and IT business value.

The Emergence of Organizational Process Liability as a Future Direction for Research on Technology Acceptance

During the assessment of a system recently deployed in a military training environment, a survey administered to capture subjects’ intention to continue use of the software resource directly conflicts with the outcome of interviews conducted with the same subjects at the same time. From the richness of the interview data, the conflict is identified to be the result of a seemingly underexplored notion in the literature: organizational process liability. This emerging construct is positioned within existing technology acceptance literature, and initial directions for future research are proposed.