Koen Smit

An Explorative Study Into Situational Artefact Construction in Business Rules Management

The implementation of software products is a time-consuming activity and requires specific expertise to be completed successfully. This is especially the case in research fields where there is no or little tool support available, such as Business Rules Management (BRM) and Business Rules Management Solutions (BRMS). Tool support is essential to successfully guide the organizational implementation of a BRMS. Motivated by the diversity of organizational structures and their BRMS implementation contexts, we design a situational-aware framework for the organizational implementation of BRMS. The framework is based on the theory of situational artefact construction. Using situational artefact construction, we study 13 BRMS implementation cases distributed over the financial and public sectors in the Netherlands. Based on the results of the cases analysed we present a framework with three main artefacts that are a stepping-stone towards further research on situational implementation methodology in the BRM field.

Blockchain-based Smart Contracts in Waste Management : A Silver Bullet?

From the article: Blockchain technology may have the potential to fundamentally change society and we might currently witness the dawn of a cryptographically secured trust-free transactions economy. One relatively unexplored application domain is waste management. Incorrect waste management practices may lead to illegal pollution or enable fraudulent transactions. Using a design science approach, we formulate problem areas and evaluate the applicableness of using a blockchain solution to mitigate the problems identified. Our results indicate that it is important that the organization and its infrastructure is prepared for the use of blockchain. There are several conditional challenges that must be overcome to realize blockchain technology’s full potential. Further research is needed in order to grasp a full understanding about the situations in which blockchain technology is beneficial or not.

Verification capabilities for business rules management in the Dutch governmental context

The management of business decisions and business logic play a critical role in an organizations daily activities. As laws, regulations and/or internal policies need to be translated into logically correct business decisions and business logic it is essential to govern and guard the logical soundness of the business decisions and business logic specified. This capability is often referred to as verification. However, the current knowledge base regarding verification as a capability is not yet researched in relation to the new Decision Model and Notation standard, developed by the Object Management Group to model and execute decisions and underlying business logic. The purpose of this paper is to identify which verification capabilities are applied in the Dutch governmental context. To identify the different verification capabilities, we conducted a three-round focus group, which led to a collection of 28 verification capabilities. Furthermore, we aimed to adequately specify each of those capabilities by demonstrating them with real-life case examples. The identified verification capabilities provide a framework to take into account when designing business rules management solutions.

Transforming Clinical Practice Guideline Usage Through the Use of a Clinical Decision Support System: An explorative study at the University Medical Centre Utrecht

Medical treatments require a lot of knowledge and skills. To safeguard the quality of healthcare in general, Clinical Practice Guidelines (CPG) are written. Different studies show that the quality of healthcare improves by using CPGs. Based on the advancements in IT, a CPG could best be supported through the use of a Clinical Decision Support System (CDSS). In this paper, we seek to transform the use of several CPGs with regards to anti-clotting medicine and treatments through the utilization of a CDSS at the University Medical Centre Utrecht (UMCU) in the Netherlands. Data analysis shows that many of the included CPGs overlap and that the utilization of a CDSS for the determination of anti-clotting medicine and treatments could result in more effective and efficient decision making. Additionally, during the validation of the CDSS, we derived the attitude of the stakeholders towards the use of a CPG in a pilot study comprising a CDSS and identified several success factors that should be taken into account when designing, validating, and implementing CPGs into CDSS.