Markus Hipp

On the Context-aware, Personalized Delivery of Process Information: Viewpoints, Problems, and Requirements

Enterprises are confronted with an increasing amount of data. This data overload makes it difficult to provide knowledge-workers and decision-makers with the needed information. Particularly challenging in this context is the integrated provision of both structured and unstructured information depending on the current process context and user, i.e., the context-aware, personalized delivery of process information. Examples of unstructured process information include all kinds of office documents or e-mails. Examples of structured process information are business process models or data from enterprise information systems. Picking up the need for a context-aware, personalized delivery of process information, this paper presents results from three empirical studies: two exploratory case studies from the automotive domain and the healthcare sector, and an online survey among 219 participants. In a first step, we identify and describe problems with respect to process-oriented information management in general and the personalized provision of process information in particular. In a second step, we derive requirements on the user-adequate handling of process information.

A framework for the intelligent delivery and user-adequate visualization of process information

A continuously increasing amount of data makes it difficult for knowledge-workers to identify the information they need to perform their tasks in the best possible way. Particularly challenging in this context is the alignment of process-related information (e.g., working instructions, best practices) with business processes. In fact, process-related information (process information for short) and business processes are usually handled separately. On one hand, shared drives, databases, and information systems are used to manage process information, on the other, process management technology provides the basis for managing business processes. In practice, enterprises often establish (Intranet) portals to connect both perspectives. However, such portals are not sufficient. Reasons are that process information is usually delivered without considering the current work context and business processes are presented to process participants in a rather static manner. Therefore, enterprises crave for new ways of making process information available. This paper picks up this challenge and presents the niPRO framework. niPRO is based on semantic technology and enables the intelligent delivery and user-adequate visualization of comprehensive process information.

Navigating in Process Model Collections: A New Approach Inspired by Google Earth

In complex business environments, business processes (e.g., engineering processes in the automobile industry) may comprise hundreds up to thousands of process steps. Though typically captured in a process model (or a collection of process models), these processes are presented to process participants in a rather static manner, e.g., as simple drawings. However, to effectively support process enactment and to link processes with relevant information, enterprises crave for new ways of visualizing processes and for interacting with them. In particular, process models must be provided in an interactive, more dynamic manner, i.e., they must be both ”experiencable” and user-adequate from the perspective of the user. In this paper, we introduce a new process navigation concept for querying process model collections. Specifically, we pick up an existing navigation concept for complex information spaces, namely Google Earth, and apply it to business processes. Thereby, we distinguish between geographical and semantic zoom functions, introduce different process views and filter mechanisms, and discuss options to manually configure needed process visualizations.

Navigating in Complex Business Processes

In order to provide information needed in knowledge-intense business processes, large companies often establish intranet portals, which enable access to their process handbook. Especially, for large business processes comprising hundreds or thousands of process steps, these portals can help to avoid time-consuming access to paper-based process documentation. However, business processes are usually presented in a rather static manner within these portals, e.g., as simple drawings or textual descriptions. Companies therefore require new ways of making large processes and process-related information better explorable for end-users. This paper picks up this issue and presents a formal navigation framework based on linear algebra for navigating in large business processes.

Determining the Link and Rate Popularity of Enterprise Process Information

Today’s knowledge workers are confronted with a high load of heterogeneous information making it difficult for them to identify the information relevant for performing their tasks. Particularly challenging is thereby the alignment of process-related information (process information for short), such as e-mails, office files, forms, checklists, guidelines, and best practices, with business processes. In previous work, we introduced the concept of process-oriented information logistics (POIL) to bridge this gap. POIL allows for the process-oriented and context-aware delivery of relevant process information to knowledge workers. So far, we have introduced concepts to integrate business processes with process information. A remaining challenge is to identify the process information relevant for a given process context. This paper tackles this challenge and extends our POIL approach with techniques and algorithms for identifying relevant process information. More specifically, we introduce two algorithms for determining the relevance of process information based on their link and rate popularity. We use a scenario from the automotive domain to demonstrate and validate the applicability of our approach.

Navigating in process model repositories and enterprise process information

Although process-aware information systems have been adopted in enterprises for many years, they still do not properly link the business processes they implement with related enterprise process information (e.g., guidelines, checklists, templates, and e-mails). On one hand, process management technology is used to design, implement, enact, and monitor processes. On the other, enterprise process information is spread over various sources like shared drives, databases, and enterprise information systems. As a consequence, users often manually link process information with particular process objects (e.g., using process portals). What is needed instead, however is an integrated access to both processes and related enterprise process information. This paper establishes such a link by introducing an integrated navigation space for process model collections and related enterprise process information. In particular, this navigation space allows process participants to flexibly navigate within process model collections, single process models, and related process information. In turn, this enables advanced end-user support for process repositories.

Enabling a User-Friendly Visualization of Business Process Models

Enterprises are facing increasingly complex business processes. Engineering processes in the automotive domain, for example, may comprise hundreds or thousands of process tasks. In such a scenario, existing modeling notations do not always allow for a user-friendly process visualization. In turn, this hampers the comprehensibility of business processes, especially for non-experienced process participants. This paper tackles this challenge by suggesting alternative ways of visualizing large and complex process models. A controlled experiment with 22 subjects provides first insights into how users perceive these approaches.

On credibility improvements for automotive navigation systems

Automotive navigation systems are becoming ubiquitous as driver assistance systems. Vendors continuously aim to enhance route guidance by adding new features to their systems. However, we found in an analysis of current navigation systems that many share interaction weaknesses, which can damage the system’s credibility. Such issues are most prevalent when selecting a route, deviating from the route intentionally, or when systems react to dynamic traffic warnings. In this work, we analyze the impact on credibility and propose improved interaction mechanisms to enhance perceived credibility of navigation systems. We improve route selection and the integration of dynamic traffic warnings by optimizing route comparability with relevance-based information display. Further, we show how bidirectional communication between driver and device can be enhanced to achieve a better mapping between device behavior and driver intention. We evaluated the proposed mechanisms in a comparative user study and present results that confirm positive effects on perceived credibility.

iCare: Intelligent Medical Information Logistics

The diversity and quantity of medical information emerging from patient treatment makes it a challenging task for medical staff to identify and handle the information they need to perform their tasks in the best possible way. The doctors ward round, for example, is a knowledge-intensive process comprising complex information-centric tasks such as patient examination and diagnosis. Goal is to provide medical staff with relevant information dependent on their work context. This paper picks up this challenge and presents iCare, a semantic application enabling an intelligent integration, analysis, and delivery of personalized medical information.

Universal Device Access with FreeMote

With the FreeMote system, we present a solution for easy and intuitive universal device control. Based on the Wii Remote Controller real world device functions can be accessed and controlled via gestures. Gestures include predefined sets apt for standard functions present in many devices as well as user definable gestures. Offering both possibilities, the users are free to choose and adapt the gestures to their needs while reducing the mental load. Along with the gesture interface, FreeMote offers a simple way of enabling everyday devices for FreeMote controlling. FreeMote makes use of the spatial nature of real world environments in device selection and in function controlling via gestures. Thus, FreeMote system supports the user in finding enabled devices, makes selecting devices easy and provides an intuitive way of controlling devices via gestures.