Stefan Oppl

Context awareness for group interaction support

In this paper, we present an implemented system for supporting group interaction in mobile distributed computing environments. First, an introduction to context computing and a motivation for using contextual information to facilitate group interaction is given. We then present the architecture of our system, which consists of two parts: a subsystem for location sensing that acquires information about the location of users as well as spatial proximities between them, and one for the actual context-aware application, which provides services for group interaction.

Tabletop concept mapping

Concept mapping is designed to externalize and represent knowledge. Together with their visual presentation concept maps should support focused and sustainable interaction between students and coaches or members of organizations. Hence, corresponding tool support has not only to empower persons externalizing their mental models but also to enable transparent multi-party interaction based on context-sensitive (re)presentations. We introduce the Tabletop Concept Mapping (TCM) technique and tool which is supposed to meet these requirements. Providing an open space to express individual thoughts and ideas, it maximizes openness with respect to pragmatics, semantics and syntax of modeling, and minimizes intervention through feature-inherent properties of the artifact.

Facilitating shared understanding of work situations using a tangible tabletop interface

As work is an inherently cooperative phenomenon, it requires a common understanding of the nature of collaboration for all involved parties. In this way, explicit articulation work becomes an integral and essential part of collaboration. Implicit aspects of collaboration have impact on the quality of work results, mainly through social norms and observations of working together. Eliciting those aspects interactively helps in avoiding (mutual) misrepresentations and lack of understanding. Tangible articulation support systems allow aligning mental models of how work should be carried out. Stakeholders can develop a common understanding of collaboration in a semantically open and non-intrusive way. They are not burdened by explication features and diagrammatic notations. We have utilised experiences with model-centred learning theory to support explicit articulation work. According to our field studies, the resulting models can be fed back to current work practices and help in preventing problematic work situations.

S-BPM ONE - Education and Industrial Developments

During the second half of 2011 we conducted a survey into the quality and state of the art of business process management. The survey results – based on face to face interviews as well as responses to an online questionnaire from 150 companies – provide a good indication of the challenges companies are facing when designing, implementing and operating processes. In this paper we present an overview of the main results and provide some discussion of their

Effects of a tabletop interface on the co-construction of concept maps

Concept Mapping is a method for externalizing and reflecting knowledge about real world phenomena. In cooperative settings, concept maps can also be used to aid cooperative learning activities and the development of a common understanding about the mapping subject. This process imposes requirements on tool support that have hardly been addressed in existing concept mapping tools. We present a tabletop interface designed to meet these requirements. In an empirical study, the positive effects on the cooperative mapping process facilitated by the proposed system have been shown in comparison to a traditional, screen-based system.

Subject-Oriented Elicitation of Distributed Business Process Knowledge

Subject-oriented business process modeling enables people to represent their knowledge about their individual ways of performing parts of a cooperative work process and to collaboratively specify the interfaces with their co-workers. How this knowledge can be captured and represented by stakeholders themselves has hardly been addressed. This paper presents an individual-centered approach to cooperative elicitation of work process knowledge in co-located and distributed business settings. An interactive tabletop interface is used for modeling and interaction support. Interactions among subjects are derived from how people cooperate using the interface. For cross-organizational use, several tabletop interfaces can be linked and used for synchronous, distributed modeling. The conceptual foundations of both, the elicitation platform and the communication and synchronization mechanism are presented and their technical feasibility is shown.

Towards human-centered design of diagrammatic representation schemes

Bridging the gap between individual mental models of stakeholders and organizational or software developers requires a diagrammatic acquisition and representation scheme that captures information provided by stakeholders in an accurate way for all involved parties. In this paper we reflect an action research approach for deriving such a scheme, and revisit existing approaches in the light of our developments. Since human-centered diagrammatic representation schemes need to ensure the intelligibility of process knowledge, they have to provide dedicated modeling elements, such as contextual information types.

Stakeholder-Driven Collaborative Modeling of Subject-Oriented Business Processes

Subject-oriented business process management (S-BPM) constitutes a new approach that focuses on acting subjects rather than events or data. Consequently, elicitation of business process knowledge can occur in cooperative settings, driven and directly conducted by involved individuals. This specific setting not only is in need of a collaborative modeling environment, but also requires tool support in order to allow people to focus on the work processes to be represented. This paper presents an approach for the collaborative modeling of subject-oriented business processes with the aid of an interactive, distributed platform and introduces concepts for information awareness and tool supported development of cooperative work aspects for effectively supporting modelers. A report on the conducted exploratory user study to elicitate user requirements illustrates potentials for further usability and user acceptance enhancements as well as extensions towards the modeling functionality of the tool set.

Articulation of work process models for organizational alignment and informed information system design

We propose a method and toolset for the articulation of knowledge about work.The method relies on physical conceptual modeling and targets nonexpert modelers.Identification and resolution of conflicting viewpoints is a core part of the method.The toolset allows the capture and simulation of models for checking their appropriateness.A case study confirms the applicability of the method and tools in practical settings. Articulating and representing procedural aspects of work in conceptual models is a prerequisite for informed information system (IS) design. Instruments supporting articulation need to establish common ground about the interaction of the collaborating actors. This article proposes a methodology for the articulation of work processes by inexperienced modelers. It consists of phases of articulation and consolidation of case-based models and interactive elaboration toward comprehensive representation of the process via virtual enactment. The resulting models can be directly interpreted by IS. A case study confirms that the methodology meets the identified requirements and identifies areas of improvement.

Articulation of subject-oriented business process models

Business process elicitation needs to capture, document, and share the expertise and experiences develop over time by the involved workers. This paper presents an approach for elicitation of subject-oriented business process models from operatively involved people, who are not expert modelers. The approach facilitates individual articulation and collaborative consolidation of work knowledge. An instrument based on physical structure elaboration techniques is introduced to represent procedural knowledge in conceptual models of collaborative work. These physical models are captured digitally and transformed to syntactically correct S-BPM models. Capturing is supported by interactive tools, which allow to correct syntactic errors. Semantic completeness of the models is archived by interactive refinement during simulated enactment using a process validation engine. The paper shows the feasibility of the approach in two case studies and identifies requirements on interactive guidance during model capturing and interpretation.