Joe Bolinger

Ontology for Enterprise Modeling

Enterprise modeling has a history of related research that has advanced high-level concepts that do not map well to implementation-oriented models like UML. Here acknowledging that the enterprise and business context impacts implementation requirements for adaptive services, we introduce the notation for representing the Adaptive Complex Enterprises through the Requirements-Execution-Delivery interaction or primitive. This simple primitive allows complex models to be developed that treats business processes at all levels and underlying data processing systems as well as human processing systems in a holistic fashion. In this paper we introduce the ontology underlying the Requirements-Execution-Delivery interactions, thus allowing Requirements-Execution-Delivery to be precisely specified as a single primitive for modeling, execution, and monitoring the behavior of Adaptive Complex Enterprises. We show how this takes the concepts developed in artificial intelligence and applies it into business activity monitoring.

Connecting reality with theory — An approach for creating integrative industry case studies in the software engineering curriculum

Case studies have been successfully integrated into a wide variety of educational contexts and disciplines. Today, case studies are increasingly accepted as valuable teaching tools in science and engineering curriculums to complement the underlying theory of the field. Well-articulated cases can reinforce abstract concepts, demonstrate the nature of real client interactions, and showcase the relevance of soft skills to students that lack significant practical experience. However, assembling and delivering quality case studies to students requires a great deal of practical disciplinary knowledge, and a careful alignment of the case content and delivery style with curricular objectives, course learning outcomes, and the overarching institutional format. In this paper, we summarize our experience with an approach for constructing case study teaching materials that are integrative and deep in content, but also carefully aligned to the core principles and format of a senior-level software engineering course. Our approach ensures that the cases are complex enough to retain their realism and intrinsic appeal, while mirroring the format and objectives of the course such that the cases reinforce key points in a familiar and consistent fashion to the students.

Collaborative workflow assistant for organizational effectiveness

Knowledge intensive process vary widely due to the variation in the specifics of the incoming request and uncertainty in handling and processing that request. Traditional management systems with pre-defined workflows are less effective for enabling these kinds of organizational workflows. Consequently, less structured tools for ad-hoc collaboration, such as Email or activity management systems [8, 16] are used instead because of the flexibility they permit at execution time. However, these ad-hoc collaborative tools are not as capable of capturing best practice knowledge in a manner that is suitable for reuse in similar contexts and future executions of the workflow. We propose to mine knowledge-intensive workflow executions in order to capture and codify best practice knowledge that can be reused to assist and enhance decision making during future executions. We present a model of a dynamic system and a method for knowledge-intensive workflow enactment that captures ad-hoc applications of tacit knowledge as the work is carried out. Our framework is illustrated using a critical and commonly occurring process in industry called the Architecture Life-Cycle (ALC) management process. This process reviews technological changes made to the installed Information Technology (IT) architectures to meet the evolving requirements of the business. We illustrate how our framework allows participants to locally enhance the ALC, by enabling each individual to perform their work in the best way and recording their intentions explicitly using framework mechanisms that relate activities, work products, transitions, and constraints. We illustrate the axioms that filter out best practices that have been observed during executions and feed them back to the collaborators to guide and improve future executions.

Document-centric collaborative spaces for increased traceability in knowledge-intensive processes

Todays spectrum of Workflow to Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW) tools provide a continuum of support ranging from process-driven to ad-hoc user-interaction. Depending on the position within this continuum, tools provide process visibility and traceability at the expense of flexibility. Here we present an architecture integrated within Microsoft Office and the Windows Shell, called “MySight”, that supports knowledge-intensive work using structured collaboration spaces. The collaboration spaces form a conceptual layer on heterogeneous systems. These spaces also provide the knowledge workers with flexibility to move in and out of spaces while at the same time maintaining the life-cycle visibility and traceability as a side effect. The architecture uses the Open XML standard supported by Microsoft(c) Office. The benefits of the tool are illustrated using a knowledge-intensive process from industry for managing architecture and technology changes, and impact to the operations of the installed IT systems.

Client TouchPoint modeling: understanding client interactions in the context of service delivery

Service delivery organizations oftentimes overlook opportunities to cultivate client relationships due to a lack of awareness of the totality of touchpoints, or interactions, that occur between service delivery personnel and client personnel over time. To enable service delivery organizations to strategically manage their client relationships, we introduce the first phase of the Client TouchPoint Modeling (CTM) process in which service delivery teams create a touchpoint map of their collective interactions across a client account. Participatory design sessions with service delivery personnel informed the design of a CTM TouchPoint Map prototype. Through these sessions, we also discovered a more collaborative approach to CTM, one in which service delivery team members work together to co-construct a unified account map in a way that promotes team transparency and sensemaking of the service experience.

Teaching students software engineering practices for micro-teams

Standard methodologies, which have been developed for large software development teams, and Agile practices, developed for small teams, make up the software engineering practices taught in the Computer Science classroom. However, we have found that there is a significant prevalence of “micro” teams doing business-critical software development in the field. Thus, software development best practices for micro teams must be incorporated into the software curriculum. Towards this end, we created a multiple-case case study (comprising five micro team projects) showing how micro teams handle the software development process. Through each of these projects, we seek to showcase what practices from existing software development methodologies are undertaken by the developers of the projects, to achieve similar ends as developers in larger teams. Specifically, the case study highlights how existing software development methodologies need to be modified, adapted or extended for micro teams. The case study and micro team guidelines were presented to students in a software engineering class within the Computer Science department at a large R1 university. The teaching was assessed using a mix of surveys and structured interviews. Initial evaluations showed promise. Students were positively inclined to accept the lessons, and showed good recall of the concepts taught in tests.

Providing end-to-end perspectives in software engineering

In order to better prepare students for professional practice, we have created a software engineering curriculum that provides an end-to-end perspective that begins with the business context of software, and goes all the way to the ongoing management of software services after deployment. This paper examines how the theoretical aspects of this broad-based curriculum may be effectively delivered through a single course within a traditional computer science program. This curriculum is under a diverse set of constraints and requirements, such as the need for pedagogical consistency, faculty development, consideration of the learning style of computer science students, and a need for an effective continuous improvement process. Our approach uses “engineering-oriented” analysis frameworks such as Porters Five Forces model for the business aspects, and attribute-driven design for software architectures, an “inverted” classroom mode of teaching where lectures are delivered on line with interactions and exercises that promote active learning reserved for the classroom, case studies developed from real projects to serve as concrete examples, open discussion boards and weekly short quizzes for concept refinement and retention, and a paper-based project where students apply the concepts learned. Faculty development and replication outside the current site are also discussed.

Stakeholder-Driven Enterprise Process Model for Complex Services Adaptation

Service - oriented organizations often deal with incoming non-routine request types, each with significant variations in requirements consequently driving discovery of processing needs. At the same time such organizations are often challenged with sharing high-cost resources and executing static processes that do not lead to effective delivery. This requires an ontology designed for flexible adaptation to facilitate performance traceability and knowledge mining. Specifically we present a formal dynamic service ontology that 1) obtains tacit knowledge as explicit in-the-micro feedback from workers performing roles, 2) provides in-the-small evolutionary (dynamic) process instance structures and monitoring mechanisms, and 3) aggregates process instances metrics into a performance and decision-making facility to align to in-the-large goals of stakeholders. The multidimensional ontology for process flexibility and performance traceability was derived from industry case studies and is cognizant of stakeholder interests. We use customer service request data to validate the ontology through its use in adaptive decision-making applied to a large IT shared services organization.

Enabling scalability, richer experiences and ABET-accreditable learning outcomes in computer science Capstone courses through inversion of control

Capstone courses are expected to prepare students for the “real world” by putting them into a microcosm of the real world. In these courses, students are given a problem of some complexity, and are expected to exercise and develop problem-solving skills as they address the problem. Within our Computer Science and Engineering program we have, over the past eight years, successfully scaled up the Capstone courses. Doing so has required innovative thinking about the roles of the students, faculty, and project sponsors. In this paper, we discuss issues with scaling up the components that have made this program successful. These include housing the courses in an NSF IUCRC that enable the cultivation of highly-committed industry partners, the creation of strong pre-requisite courses, careful development of faculty resources through the selective hiring and mentoring of clinical faculty, a commitment of the faculty to give up close management and control, strong partnerships with other organizations within the university to provide students greater access to resources, an emphasis on cross-team knowledge sharing and learning, and the development of unique assessment and evaluation tools so as to be able to monitor, measure and fairly assess a wide-spectrum of projects.

BlackTie: Injecting elements of formality into enterprise social software

Successful organizations rely on a healthy mixture of formal and informal structures to coordinate effectively and operate efficiently. Formal structures, such as documented business processes, are valuable when they can be applied successfully to new contexts and because they provide a high degree of visibility and traceability during their application. When they fail, or are simply not available, an organization relies on its informal structures and the human capacity for innovation to continue operating. Despite their resiliency, informal structures are not as easily understandable which can make them difficult for outsiders to learn, comprehend, and audit. Although formal structures are often the byproducts of recurrent patterns of ad-hoc collaboration, most cooperative tools cannot externalize usage data into human readable artifacts that can be systematically reused and evolved. In this paper we introduce BlackTie, a collaborative system designed to extract tangible and reusable models of collaboration during ad-hoc interaction and facilitate their reuse and evolution over time.