Work Activity Coordination: It is not just business processes, it is intelligent people too G.J. Houben Faculty of Mathematics & Computing Science Eindhoven University of Technology P.O. Box 513, 5600 MB Eindhoven, The Netherlands phone: +31 40 2472733, fax: +31 40 2463992, email:
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Abstract In this position paper we argue that we lack an adequate modeling approach for the design of modern, integrated information systems. Different technologies are available, but their integrated use leaves the designer with a gap between the global business process view and the local views of the information system applications. The global view concentrates on the business goals, while the local views focus more on the actual data flows. In between these views we can see the office workers: only by exploiting their intelligence a practical office is able to operate. For the design of flexible and effective information systems the gap needs to be bridged. We advocate a model combining an activity-based and a conversation-based paradigm for the design of information systems in which the communication between intelligent office workers plays a pivotal role.
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Introduction
Within the field of information systems we see new types of information systems emerging. Both in research and in commercial application a new generation of information processing systems appears to fulfill an existing need. This application area is characterized by the need to support organizations in the coordination of activities within their business processes. For a number of reasons, most notably an increased need for flexibility, commercial and non-commercial organizations want a better grip on their business processes. They want to control their processes in such a way that their output better serves the goal for which the process exists: for example to gain a larger share of the market or to better serve the public. The increased level of control requires that the humans and information systems involved need to be coordinated better. In traditional office environments the humans actors have a certain autonomy, leaving them responsible for local, not automated activities. A look at results in applying logistic principles to such environments suggests that the efficiency of the business process can be improved by coordinating these local activities. At the same time the current technology makes it possible to connect these local activities into one controllable process, with computer support for both the local activities and the central control.
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Technology
Generally the technology for work activity coordination aims at supporting office workers in controlling their joint work. 1
In typical workflow management approaches the control is implemented by the existence of a central automated system that serves as the “brains” of the organization. Using predefined procedures the central unit supports the flow of work, i.e. the flow of data or documents, along the relevant employees. Characteristically, the humans involved are considered resources to be used by the organization when needed. A groupware or CSCW approach is typified by the use of a paradigm that acknowledges that office workers are part of a process in which structured communication is paired with unstructured communication. In order to facilitate less formal, less structured use of information a groupware system allows the users efficient access to the shared information. These applications show a role where the human uses the information systems instead of being controlled by the systems. Other related technologies, like document management, document imaging and webbased systems, differ in their support of the office workers. They all share the same goal, which is to support the intelligent human beings of the office in their common pursuit of the business targets. For this support information systems are necessary that 1. integrate the individual activities of the office workers into coherent processes; 2. relate the office activities to the goals of the business process. In [1] it is elegantly shown how the available technologies differ and how the human roles in process management are considered from different angles.
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Modeling approaches
When we observe the practical implementations of these new information systems and when we look at the research results concerning the development of such systems, we can see that the different approaches share a common problem. When designing such an integrated information system that supports a real-world business process, the difficulty appears to be that there are multiple levels of abstraction necessary to capture all relevant aspects of the business process support. In the design phase of such a support system the designers appear to concentrate on the control processes, as well as on the data (flow) management involved. The design of an optimal control process is a valuable tool for obtaining an efficient and effective business process, but it abstracts from the actual activities of the individual office workers involved. On the other hand, the approach to integrate the existing information system applications into one integrated system that supports the flow of the information along the appropriate desks, tends to lead to a technology-driven approach: often this leads to a business process that is less flexible and less related to the business goals at hand. One important aspect of office work that is not well addressed by the current approaches, is the fact that the office generally consists of intelligent humans that process the available data, information and knowledge. An office is not just giving the right commands to these humans. It is not just routing documents to the desks. These knowledge workers interact with each other and with the systems available: this interaction is only partially addressed in most of the process modeling approaches. The interaction between knowledge workers involves unstructured and informal communication. Moreover, using their experience and intellectual abilities the office workers can influence the actual processes in order to customize a process for a specific case: generally, this property is used by an office to cope with exceptions and inconsistencies. A second important aspect that deserves more attention is the heterogeneous character of the integrated information system. As the local activities involve the use of local information systems, possibly each with their own technology and their own paradigms for communication, the integration requires a uniform view of the entire information system. The current success of web-based and Intranet-based company-wide communication will contribute to the demand for an integration of existing information systems. 2
In this paper we advocate that the new generation of information systems requires new modeling approaches: we need new paradigms to capture the relevant aspects of an integrated information system supporting work activity coordination. It is critical that the two aspects, the heterogeneous combination of existing systems and the user-influence (customization) on the processes, should be acknowledged in the new paradigm.
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Communication
We suggest that the current modeling approaches lack the adequate attention for the communication processes that tie the work activities together. We see the communication processes as an intermediate level between the level of the control processes and the level of data management. At the level of the control processes the organization’s processes are currently seen in a logistical perspective: the prime focus is on a global optimization, where humans, data and information systems are more or less considered resources. At the level of data management the actual flow of documents is currently described in a way that reflects the technology that is used to implement this flow: for example using a groupware or workflow management paradigm. What is necessary, however, is a model that describes the communication processes (1) irrelevant of their implementation, but (2) supporting all relevant details that relate to the global logistical perspective. By (1) we mean that the description should provide a uniform view of the communication processes that leaves open an implementation in different tools and technologies. By (2) we mean that a view of all communication processes embodies more than is captured in the high level logistical view. The office communication involves a number of unstructured or informal communications and conversations without which the knowledge workers would not be able to do their job, but which can not be adequately covered in the global design: it is not feasible to incorporate all these details into that formal description of the global control process. In [1] the distinction is made between activity-based models and conversation-based models: both attack the same problem in a different way. It is argued that there is a difference between organizational/business process modeling (the process related to the operations and resources, and independent from implementation) and workflow modeling (the support of the process by an information system, including technology aspects). We agree with [2] that the conversation-based models are appropriate for the less formal details of communication, but overkill for the more structured processes: “it is therefore necessary for users to be able to switch back and forth gracefully between these two modes of interaction”. We feel that research should try to find a communication paradigm that allows to incorporate the structured and unstructured work and communication processes within one model.
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Integrated communication model
The integrated communication model should allow for both the definition of business goals and the description of information flows. The model should allow for a design description at a level of abstraction that is high enough to describe the data and information management processes, while not too high to just describe the control processes: the model must be a tool to specify an integrated information system. One possible combination is to use activity-based models (e.g. Petri-nets) for the specification of the structured parts of the work. The work activities that are executed according to predefined procedures can be elegantly described using an activity-based model. We consider the entire global process to be an integration of these structured parts, where the integration involves the intelligence of the office workers. Note that from a global view point the integrated model may look highly structured, but at the (lower) abstraction level where the 3
office workers communicate with each other and the information systems, there is less structure involved. Therefore, we suggest that the structured parts are tied together using conversation- or goal-based models. We find that in many cases the office workers decide, using their experience and knowledge, whether they use a predefined procedure. So, while having a more or less structured process in which office workers are actors that choose to execute structured or unstructured processes, the communication and interaction between office workers acts as the “glue” that makes the office work (see item 1 in Section 2). In order to model this glue, we think that (distributed) agent technology can help. By using goal-oriented agents to help office workers assess the applicability of an (un)structured procedure for a job at hand, the goal of the work activity gets the prime focus: as it should be, since (perfectly) the goal relates to the global business goals (see item 2 in Section 2). The resulting model should facilitate a complete view of the communication processes, allowing for relevant process evaluation and analysis. Within the view automated and nonautomated data processing should be considered, while abstracting from the differences in data manipulation: a uniform data manipulation language should be included in the approach. Thus, the model could act as a solid base for a flexible development and usage of an integrated information system.
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Conclusion
As we can see from the attention for issues like workflow management, the trend in modeling is upwards: to the global business processes and their control processes. At the same time causes the necessary interfacing of systems implemented in different tools and technologies, that attention needs to be given to lower level implementation issues. Therefore there exists a growing gap between the technical issues and the global view. We start to lack the intermediate theory, method, techniques and tools that help to define a conceptual model of the integrated information system at the right abstraction level. Just as in the fields of database management systems and transaction processing, where the proper models have helped to bridge the gap between designer/implementers and users, we need to build a strong framework to be able to design the right information system architecture together with the users. Making conceptual models for work activity coordination that capture the right details at the right abstraction levels, becomes a skill that we as researchers need to support with the right framework. For this to become a success, researchers from different communities must be convinced to team up: the existence of a uniform language to describe the communication and information processes benefits both the designers of control processes, and the implementers of actual information systems. In this particular position paper we argue that a combination of conversation-based and activity-based models can help to put the communicating knowledge workers at the proper place. They are the (passive) users of the information systems, but also the (active) intelligent actors that make that structured processes can function in practice. Therefore, the combined model should allow for just the right interaction between information systems and office workers.
References [1] Report from NSF Workshop on Workflow and Process Automation in Information Systems, Sheth e.a., SIGMOD Record, Vol. 25, No. 4, 1996, pages 55-67. [2] Experiences with Workflow Management: Issues for the Next Generation, Abbott and Sarin, Proc. ACM Conf. on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work, 1994, pages 113-120.
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