This paper reports an interpretive study of three cross-functional teams in a single company. The teams were virtual because each was composed of workers located in a small southern U.S. town and a cosmopolitan northern U.S. city. The conceptual framework of situated learning within communities of practice guided the interpretation of transcripts of interviews with 22 managers and team members. The results suggest that virtual teamwork creates special demands, which require workers to devise local practices for coordinating their work with remote team members. Through different combinations of remote and face-to-face communication, using a variety of communication media, the learning of work practices becomes situated in the virtual community rather than imposed by managers or specially designed coordinating technologies. 3

The production management system used by most manufacturers today is comprised of disconnected planning and execution processes, and lacks the support for interoperability for enterprise wide integration. This situation often prevents the manufacturer from fully exploring market opportunities in a timely fashion. To address this problem, we propose an agent-based framework for intelligent enterprise integration. A set of agents with specialized expertise can be quickly assembled to help with the gathering of relevant information and knowledge, to cooperate with each other and with other management systems and human managers and analysts to arrive at timely decisions in dealing with various enterprise scenarios. The proposed multi-agent system, including its theoretical foundation, architecture, and implementation are presented. The work of this system is demonstrated through an integration scenario involving real management software systems.

Abstract. The UML 2 Activity Diagram is designed for modelling business processes, but does not yet include any concepts for modelling process goals and their measures. We extend the UML 2 Activity Diagram with process goals and performance measures to make them conceptually visible. Additionally, we provide a mapping to BPEL to make the measures available for execution and monitoring. This profile and its mapping are tested with an example business process. 1

: Informal peer help networks, where workers help one another with tasks, are common in many workplaces. In this paper we present a practical approach for just-in-time workplace training that uses artificial intelligence techniques to extend informal peer help networks to a broader scale. We have developed a system called PHelpS that is a situated, peer-supported, AI-based approach to training in procedural, task-oriented domains. PHelpS supports workers as they perform their tasks, offers assistance in finding peer helpers when required, and mediates communication on task-related topics. Presently we are running pilot-tests of PHelpS with our client organization to ensure that the system adheres to the organizational policies and procedures, that it will be accepted by workers, and that it is sufficiently robust and effective for wider scale deployment. The system opens up new research avenues for further exploration of AI-based training systems and computer-supported collaborative le...

Abstract—Understanding how to implement software process improvement (SPI) successfully is arguably the most challenging issue facing the SPI field today. The SPI literature contains many case studies of successful companies and descriptions of their SPI programs. However, the research efforts to date are limited and inconclusive and without adequate theoretical and psychometric justification. This paper extends and integrates models from prior research by performing an empirical investigation of the key factors for success in SPI. A quantitative survey of 120 software organizations was designed to test the conceptual model and hypotheses of the study. The results indicate that success depends critically on six organizational factors, which explained more than 50 percent of the variance in the outcome variable. The main contribution of the paper is to increase the understanding of the influence of organizational issues by empirically showing that they are at least as important as technology for succeeding with SPI and, thus, to provide researchers and practitioners with important new insights regarding the critical factors of success in SPI.

The production management system used by most manufacturers today is comprised of disconnected planning and execution processes, and lacks the support for interoperability and collaboration needed for enterprise-wide integration. This situation often prevents the manufacturer from fully exploring market opportunities in a timely fashion. To address this problem, we are exploring an agent-based approach to intelligent enterprise integration. In this approach, a set of agents with specialized expertise can be quickly assembled to help with the gathering of relevant information and knowledge, to cooperate with each other and with other parts of the production management system and humans to arrive at timely decisions in dealing with various enterprise scenarios. The proposed multi-agent system, including its architecture and implementation, are presented and demonstrated through an example integration scenario involving real planning and execution software systems.

Abstract: The designing of IT support for the management of inter-organizational service processes inherits the full complexity of aspects dealt with in approaches altering, automating, and supporting these processes in general – and it needs to go beyond. As customer concerns, especially in long-lasting processes, may change over time, support has to provide flexible service, adjustments among different providers, and opportunities to care for the customer. With Serviceflow Management (SFM) we argue in favor of putting these service-related aspects in the center of modeling, design and architectures. Its conceptual distinction between the serviceflow (as the portion of the process where the customer’s concern is evaluated and cared for) and background processes enables SFM (1) to guide providers as well as designers to focus on service design and delivery, (2) to provide support for serviceflows with enhanced flexibility and service configuration, and (3) to suggest the design of service points where service workers and customers “meet”. Thus the original workflow metaphor, which directs the design of process support from a mass production point of view, is questioned and replaced by a more suitable concept, which considers social and quality aspects in service delivery. Instance-based XML process representations, generic components and architectures for their exchange as well as for the provision of service tasks are presented and discussed, exemplified by an e-health process.

Abstract. Current UML Profiles for Business Process Modelling realise a narrow focus of the process, and capture the process flow on a low level of detail. They do not provide a comprehensive coverage of theoretical aspects. In this work, we have designed a UML 2 Profile for Business Process Modelling that provides two complementary perspectives, focussing on the business process context (e.g. goals, measures, products, customers, etc.) as well as on the detailed business process flow. Therefore, the profile presents a business process in a very comprehensive way. It is tested with an example business process. 1

The literature on Business Process Reengineering (BPR) has evolved into a strand of literature which studies organizational change (OC), and more specifically, Business Process Change (BPC), induced and enabled by Information and Communication Technology (ICT). With the unfolding of electronic government (e-government) changes to the way government works also seem to be imminent. Electronic government increasingly impacts business processes and workflows in the public sector. The BPC/ICT research, hence, has the capacity to directly inform both the research and practice of electronic government. In this paper, the findings of the BPC/ICT literature are reviewed and discussed regarding their applicability to electronic government. Both the theory and preliminary empirical evidence suggest that electronic government must be seen as a special case of ICT-enabled business process change. 1.

The concept of process maturity proposes that a process has a lifecycle that is assessed by the extent to which the process is explicitly defined, managed, measured, and controlled. A maturity model assumes that progress towards goal achievement comes in stages. The supply chain maturity model presented in this paper is based upon concepts developed by researchers over the past two decades. The Software Engineering Institute has also applied the concept of process maturity to the software development process in the form of the Capability Maturity Model. This paper examines the relationship between supply chain management process maturity and performance, and provides a Supply Chain Management (SCM) Process Maturity Model for enhanced supply chain performance.