Lysanne Lessard

S-FIT: a technique for integrating social features in existing information systems

There has been much interest in the design of social websites and an increasing use of social tools for group work in organizations. Recommendations and design guidelines have been developed that guide designers in building certain aspects of social network and social media sites from scratch. However, there has been little investigation into transforming existing information systems into socially-oriented ones. We address this gap by first identifying the key features of socially-oriented systems from literature on social network and social media sites. We then present S-FIT, a social features integration technique, which can be applied to a model of an existing information system in order to identify opportunities to incorporate social features within the system. S-FIT can be used to extend commonly-used systems modeling techniques. We illustrate the application of S-FIT on a Business Process Diagram of an existing library information system.

Architectural frameworks: defining the structures for implementing learning health systems

BackgroundThe vision of transforming health systems into learning health systems (LHSs) that rapidly and continuously transform knowledge into improved health outcomes at lower cost is generating increased interest in government agencies, health organizations, and health research communities. While existing initiatives demonstrate that different approaches can succeed in making the LHS vision a reality, they are too varied in their goals, focus, and scale to be reproduced without undue effort. Indeed, the structures necessary to effectively design and implement LHSs on a larger scale are lacking. In this paper, we propose the use of architectural frameworks to develop LHSs that adhere to a recognized vision while being adapted to their specific organizational context. Architectural frameworks are high-level descriptions of an organization as a system; they capture the structure of its main components at varied levels, the interrelationships among these components, and the principles that guide their evolution. Because these frameworks support the analysis of LHSs and allow their outcomes to be simulated, they act as pre-implementation decision-support tools that identify potential barriers and enablers of system development. They thus increase the chances of successful LHS deployment.DiscussionWe present an architectural framework for LHSs that incorporates five dimensions—goals, scientific, social, technical, and ethical—commonly found in the LHS literature. The proposed architectural framework is comprised of six decision layers that model these dimensions. The performance layer models goals, the scientific layer models the scientific dimension, the organizational layer models the social dimension, the data layer and information technology layer model the technical dimension, and the ethics and security layer models the ethical dimension. We describe the types of decisions that must be made within each layer and identify methods to support decision-making.ConclusionIn this paper, we outline a high-level architectural framework grounded in conceptual and empirical LHS literature. Applying this architectural framework can guide the development and implementation of new LHSs and the evolution of existing ones, as it allows for clear and critical understanding of the types of decisions that underlie LHS operations. Further research is required to assess and refine its generalizability and methods.

Using design science research to develop a modeling technique for service design

Knowledge-intensive business services (KIBS) such as consulting and research and development services are important factors of performance and innovation in industrialized economies. However, current modeling techniques aimed at supporting service design do not account for their core characteristics such as the relational nature of exchanges among providers, clients, and other actors. Using data from a case of academic research and development service as a type of KIBS, we present a modeling technique that can support the design of successful service engagements in this domain. This work is guided by the understanding of service as a process of collaborative value creation, or value cocreation. Beyond the contribution of the modeling technique to KIBS design, our work shows the strength of using a Design Science Research methodology in creating design artifacts that are strongly aligned with the problem domain for which they are developed.

Towards Improved Requirements Engineering with SysML and the User Requirements Notation

The Systems Modeling Language (SysML) is a popular and standardized UML profile for systems engineering applications. In addition to seven conventional UML diagram types, SysML supports requirement diagrams and tables that can be used to capture requirements, their attributes, and their relationships. However, several important concepts such as goals and contributions are not predefined in SysML, hindering the reasoning about tradeoffs and adaptation, especially in emerging socio-cyber-physical systems such as smart cities. In this paper, we provide a preliminary investigation of different ways of combining SysML with the User Requirements Notation (URN), a standard that focuses on the modeling and analysis of goals and scenarios. We argue that SysML and URN are complementary and synergistic, and that their combination enables new requirements modeling, analysis, and management opportunities for new types of systems. Examples of potential integration approaches are discussed, briefly assessed, and illustrated with existing tools for SysML, URN, and requirements management.

A real-time dashboard for managing pathology processes

Context: The Eastern Ontario Regional Laboratory Association (EORLA) is a newly established association of all the laboratory and pathology departments of Eastern Ontario that currently includes facilities from eight hospitals. All surgical specimens for EORLA are processed in one central location, the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine (DPLM) at The Ottawa Hospital (TOH), where the rapid growth and influx of surgical and cytology specimens has created many challenges in ensuring the timely processing of cases and reports. Although the entire process is maintained and tracked in a clinical information system, this system lacks pre-emptive warnings that can help management address issues as they arise. Aims: Dashboard technology provides automated, real-time visual clues that could be used to alert management when a case or specimen is not being processed within predefined time frames. We describe the development of a dashboard helping pathology clinical management to make informed decisions on specimen allocation and tracking. Methods: The dashboard was designed and developed in two phases, following a prototyping approach. The first prototype of the dashboard helped monitor and manage pathology processes at the DPLM. Results: The use of this dashboard helped to uncover operational inefficiencies and contributed to an improvement of turn-around time within The Ottawa Hospital′s DPML. It also allowed the discovery of additional requirements, leading to a second prototype that provides finer-grained, real-time information about individual cases and specimens. Conclusion: We successfully developed a dashboard that enables managers to address delays and bottlenecks in specimen allocation and tracking. This support ensures that pathology reports are provided within time frame standards required for high-quality patient care. Given the importance of rapid diagnostics for a number of diseases, the use of real-time dashboards within pathology departments could contribute to improving the quality of patient care beyond EORLA′s.

A design theory and modeling technique for the design of knowledge-intensive business services

Knowledge-intensive business services (KIBS) play an important role in industrialized economies, yet little research has focused on how best to support their design. The emerging understanding of service as a process of value cocreation could provide a relevant framework for KIBS design. However, we first need to better understand how value is actually cocreated in KIBS; this understanding then needs to be made operational in design tools that can help create successful outcomes for all parties engaged in a service relationship. Our work aims to identify key mechanisms of value cocreation in KIBS, and adapt existing modeling techniques so as to support KIBS design. While preliminary, our results show that Agent-Oriented modeling, in particular i*, is able to express key mechanisms of value cocreation and account for its intentional dimension. This research yields theoretical insights for a KIBS-specific theory of value cocreation and practical support for the design of KIBS.

Conceptualization of a Value Cocreation Language for Knowledge-Intensive Business Services

Knowledge-intensive business services (KIBS) are business-to-business services that are characterized as being knowledge intensive, relying on expert employees, and providing knowledge-based solutions to customers. As a context for service design, KIBS bring unique challenges regarding the need to communicate about value cocreation among companies entering into a service exchange. Unfortunately, until now, there have been limited contributions in the area of modeling languages to support the cocreation of value during business exchanges. In this paper, an abstract language (metamodel) is proposed to support IT designers in understanding value cocreation in the field of IT-related business services. A value creation metamodel is first structured around three dimensions: the nature of the value, the method of value creation, and the business object impacted by the value. Then, value cocreation is modeled as a specialization of the value creation metamodel. This new language is illustrated with a case study related to KIBS in the financial sector.