Showing papers on "Business rule published in 2020"

Business Process Change: A Business Process Management Guide for Managers and Process Professionals-4/E

Abstract: Business Process Change, 3rd Edition provides a balanced view of the field of business process change. Bestselling author Paul Harmon offers concepts, methods, cases for all aspects and phases of successful business process improvement. Updated and added for this edition is new material on the development of business models and business process architecture development, on integrating decision management models and business rules, on service processes and on dynamic case management, and on integrating various approaches in a broad business process management approach. New to this edition: How to develop business models and business process architecture How to integrate decision management models and business rules New material on service processes and on dynamic case management Learn to integrate various approaches in a broad business process management approach Extensive revision and update addresses Business Process Management Systems, and the integration of process redesign and Six Sigma Learn how all the different process elements fit together in this best first book on business process, now completely updated Tailor the presented methodology, which is based on best practices, to your organization’s specific needs Understand the human aspects of process redesign Benefit from all new detailed case studies showing how these methods are implemented

Blockchain based Decentralized Applications: Technology Review and Development Guidelines.

Abstract: Blockchain or Distributed Ledger Technology is a disruptive technology that provides the infrastructure for developing decentralized applications enabling the implementation of novel business models even in traditionally centralized domains. In the last years it has drawn high interest from the academic community, technology developers and startups thus lots of solutions have been developed to address blockchain technology limitations and the requirements of applications software engineering. In this paper, we provide a comprehensive overview of DLT solutions analyzing the addressed challenges, provided solutions and their usage for developing decentralized applications. Our study reviews over 100 blockchain papers and startup initiatives from which we construct a 3-tier based architecture for decentralized applications and we use it to systematically classify the technology solutions. Protocol and Network Tier solutions address the digital assets registration, transactions, data structure, and privacy and business rules implementation and the creation of peer-to-peer networks, ledger replication, and consensus-based state validation. Scaling Tier solutions address the scalability problems in terms of storage size, transaction throughput, and computational capability. Finally, Federated Tier aggregates integrative solutions across multiple blockchain applications deployments. The paper closes with a discussion on challenges and opportunities for developing decentralized applications by providing a multi-step guideline for decentralizing the design of traditional systems and implementing decentralized applications.

Natural language processing-enhanced extraction of SBVR business vocabularies and business rules from UML use case diagrams

Abstract: Discovery, specification and proper representation of various aspects of business knowledge plays crucial part in model-driven information systems engineering, especially when it comes to the early stages of systems development. Being among the most applicable and advanced features of model-driven development, model transformation could help improving one of the most time- and resource-consuming efforts in this process, namely, discovery and specification of business vocabularies and business rules within the problem domain. One of our latest developments in this area was the solution for the automatic extraction of SBVR business vocabularies and business rules from UML use case diagrams, which was arguably one of the most comprehensive developments of this kind currently available in public. In this paper, we present an enhancement to our previous development by introducing a novel natural language processing component to it. This enhancement provides more advanced extraction capabilities (such as recognition of entities, entire noun and verb phrases, multinary associations) and better quality of the extraction results compared to our previous solution. The main contributions presented in this paper are pre- and post-processing algorithms, and two extraction algorithms using custom-trained POS tagger. Based on the related work findings, it is safe to state that the presented solution is novel and original in its approach of combining together M2M transformation of UML and SBVR models with natural language processing techniques in the field of model-driven information systems engineering.

Towards Identifying Microservice Candidates from Business Rules Implemented in Stored Procedures

Abstract: During the 1980 and 1990’s decades, relational database management systems arose as an alternative to implement and store application business logic due to its robustness. Many of those legacy systems suffer from several problems such as low scalability, database vendor lock-in, and complex maintenance and evolution. With the success of lightweight virtualization techniques and new distributed architectures, mainly the microservices, companies are migrating legacy systems to this architectural style. Although several studies have proposed migration processes and reported migration experience to microservices, to the best of our knowledge, none of them has addressed systems whose business rules are implemented in database artifacts, particularly stored procedures. Therefore, this paper presents a process to identify microservice candidates from application business rules implemented in stored procedures. We applied the process to a real large scale system, for which 357 business rules were mapped and 13 microservices were identified. In addition, the process helped to find out many duplicated pieces of code, thus also improving the system maintainability.

Automated Business Process Modelling for Analyzing Sustainable System Requirements Engineering

Abstract: This paper presents the new automatic modelling methodology to derive the system requirements from the business goal model. This methodology involves two main levels: (1) level 1 presents the business requirements for the business environment to describe the business strategy and infrastructure specifications; and (2), level 2 presents the IT requirements and how its automatically being model and analyze from Business Processes (BPs). Level 1 includes three main elements: business goals, business rules and BP. Level 2 includes four main stages: (1) translating the business goals into UML sequence diagrams in order to explore the detailed information about the BP; (2) illustrating the UML sequences diagrams data into the loosely coupled format named Extensible Mark-up Language (XML) Metadata interchange (XMI) in order to examine and map the information; (3) generating the XMI format of the UML state chart diagram by analyzing the business goals in order to clarify and resolve conflicts between goals; and (4) converting the UML state chart diagram from the XMI format in order to clarify of the system requirements for system developers. The proposed methodology can help the system developers to understand the Business Process (BP) goals and implement the system according to the organizational requirements. It can positively influence the alignment between business and IT.

Sagitec Software Studio (S3) - A Low Code Application Development Platform

Abstract: Building an application using full-stack development model was the strategy of the past. A low code platform allows organization to build enterprise level software with minimal coding (mainly drag and drop) and focusing more on business functionality. Sagitec’s low code platform is a domain neutral entity which provides a rich graphical interface with various building blocks like form design, data integration, business rule creator, Business Process Modelling (BPM), File Processing, Report, Correspondence generator and analytics. One can build very large enterprise level application using this platform, all these capabilities are attached to core as an engine. Similarly, Big Data features can also be added as another engine.Platform allows even citizen developer to build application in rapid speed which in turns reduce the cost of building application and improves Return on Investment (ROI). In addition, Sagitec also provides low code platform for comprehensive quality assurance activity, requirement tracking, analytics for fraud detection and many more.

A Design of the Resilient Enterprise: A Reference Architecture for Emergent Behaviors Control.

Abstract: The sooner disruptive emergent behaviors are detected, the sooner preventive measures can be taken to ensure the resilience of business processes execution. Therefore, organizations need to prepare for emergent behaviors by embedding corrective control mechanisms, which help coordinate organization-wide behavior (and goals) with the behavior of local autonomous entities. Ongoing technological advances, brought by the Industry 4.0 and cyber-physical systems of systems paradigms, can support integration within complex enterprises, such as supply chains. In this paper, we propose a reference enterprise architecture for the detection and monitoring of emergent behaviors in enterprises. We focus on addressing the need for an adequate reaction to disruptions. Based on a systematic review of the literature on the topic of current architectural designs for understanding emergent behaviors, we distill architectural requirements. Our architecture is a hybrid as it combines distributed autonomous business logic (expressed in terms of simple business rules) and some central control mechanisms. We exemplify the instantiation and use of this architecture by means of a proof-of-concept implementation, using a multimodal logistics case study. The obtained results provide a basis for achieving supply chain resilience “by design”, i.e., through the design of coordination mechanisms that are well equipped to absorb and compensate for the effects of emergent disruptive behaviors.

Do Declarative Process Models Help to Reduce Cognitive Biases Related to Business Rules

Abstract: Declarative process modeling languages, such as Declare, represent processes by means of temporal rules, namely constraints. Those languages typically come endowed with a graphical notation to draw such models diagrammatically. In this paper, we explore the effects of diagrammatic representation on humans’ deductive reasoning involved in the analysis and compliance checking of declarative process models. In an experiment, we compared textual descriptions of business rules against textual descriptions that were supplemented with declarative models. Results based on a sample of 75 subjects indicate that the declarative process models did not improve but rather lowered reasoning performance. Thus, for novice users, using the graphical notation of Declare may not help readers properly understand business rules: they may confuse them in comparison to textual descriptions. A likely explanation of the negative effect of graphical declarative models on human reasoning is that readers interpret edges wrongly. This has implications for the practical use of business rules on the one hand and the design of declarative process modeling languages on the other.

An Approach to Mine SBVR Vocabularies and Rules from Business Documents

Abstract: Enterprises model the behavior of their business to prepare a communication standard for business analysts and to specify requirements to Information Technology (IT) people. The communication gap between IT group and business analysts, who lie on the opposite end of the business spectrum exists due to the different terminologies used in their respective fields regarding the same context. This gap has led to major software failures which prompted the OMG group has come up with a new standard - Semantic of Business Vocabulary and Business Rules (SBVR). Declarative models are provided by SBVR to represent Business Vocabulary and Business Rules which can be understood by everyone working throughout the business spectrum. Each business is governed by business rules which are constrained by the regulation policy set up by the policy guidelines of the organization and government regulations set up on the organization. Business rules are specified in documents like user guides, requirement documents, terms and conditions, do's and don'ts. Typically a Business Analyst interprets the document and manually extracts rules based on his understanding which leads to potential discrepancies, ambiguities and quality issues in the software system. To minimize such errors, in this paper we present an unsupervised approach to automatically extract SBVR vocabularies and rules from domain-specific business documents. We also present our initial results and comparative study with our earlier approach.

Constrained Generation Bids in Local Electricity Markets: A Semantic Approach

Abstract: The worldwide investment in renewable energy sources is leading to the formation of local energy communities in which users can trade electric energy locally. Regulations and the required enablers for effective transactions in this new context are currently being designed. Hence, the development of software tools to support local transactions is still at an early stage and faces the challenge of constant updates to the data models and business rules. The present paper proposes a novel approach for the development of software tools to solve auction-based local electricity markets, considering the special needs of local energy communities. The proposed approach considers constrained bids that can increase the effectiveness of distributed generation use. The proposed method takes advantage of semantic web technologies, in order to provide models with the required dynamism to overcome the issues related to the constant changes in data and business models. Using such techniques allows the system to be agnostic to the data model and business rules. The proposed solution includes the proposed constraints, application ontology, and semantic rule templates. The paper includes a case study based on real data that illustrates the advantages of using the proposed solution in a community with 27 consumers.

The rules of business transformation

Abstract: Business transformation initiatives update a company’s production methods and aim to ensure it operates more efficiently. However, the author suggests that a reactive, piece meal approach to needed change relegates a company to lagging behind its market and stagnates its growth. A proactive, holistic approach to business transformation ensures that a company is attuned to its evolving market environment. It secures the long term the survival, sustainability and success of a company. Findings from this study suggest that customer focus, transformative strategy, ethical practices and well executed growth metrics are essential for successful business transformation. The study shows that transformative leaders step away from limited competitor driven tactics to focus on securing long term growth, superior service delivery and stakeholder satisfaction. These companies use technology to unlock new markets and engage in open collaboration with their customers to create valuable new products. The study reviews metadata drawn from published interviews with transformative CEOs to derive the rules of business transformation. While there are many business development options to choose from in the 21st century, the author challenges company management teams to rethink their company strategy and adopt the essential rules of business transformation to secure their long term survival and success. The study suggests that business transformation is not about making a profit from a bottom-line business plan. Rather, it is about taking the lid off performance, ensuring company sustainability and relevance while fulfilling stakeholder expectations, today and into the future. Key words: Transformative strategy, business transformation, ethical leadership, transformative leadership, sustainable performance, business rules, 21st Century.

Business Processes and the Safety of Stakeholders: Considering the Electromagnetic Pollution

Abstract: Enterprise models are featuring business processes and corresponding stakeholders In this paper, we are interested in those stakeholders who are humans They are reflected in enterprise models with mainly considering regulations (what laws and business rules they should stick to) and public values (to what public values, such as safety privacy, and so on their behavior should conform) Nevertheless, we have seen no enterprise models that reflect the effect on human health, for example concerning the electromagnetic “pollution” each human is exposed to We argue that avoiding electro-magnetic pollution as much as possible is a sensible goal as it concerns the behavior of any human stakeholder Hence, this can be considered as another desired behavioral restriction, next to regulations and public values In this paper, we discuss in detail the electro-magnetic pollution and its effect on human health, and we propose ways to reducing it Finally, we give recommendations on how to reflect those issues in enterprise models, such that the safety of stakeholders is taken into account

The DEMO Methodology

Abstract: In this chapter DEMO (Design and Engineering Methodology for Organisations) is presented, in order to produce the essential model of an enterprise, or in general of a Scope of Interest (which may cover a part of one enterprise or of a network of enterprises). Like every proper methodology, DEMO comprises a Way of Thinking (WoT), a Way of Modelling (WoM), and a Way of Working (WoW). The WoT consists of the theories that are discussed in part B of this book. The WoM consists of an integrated whole of four aspect models: the Cooperation model (CM), the Action Model (AM), the Process Model (PM), and the Fact Model (FM). The CM of a Scope of Interest (SoI) is the ontological model of its construction, thus of the identified transactor roles and the coordination structures among them. Three structures are distinguished: the interaction structure, the interimpediment structure and the interstriction structure. The AM of an SoI is the ontological model of its operation. For every internal actor role, it provides the rules that guide the role fillers in doing their work. The guidelines for responding to coordination events are called action rules (similar to business rules), the ones for performing production acts are called work instructions. The PM of an SoI is the ontological model of the state space and the transition space of its coordination world. It contains the existence laws and occurrence laws for all internal and border transactor roles. The PM connects the CM and the AM of an SoI as far as coordination is concerned. The FM of an SoI is the ontological model of the state space and the transition space of its production world. It contains the existence laws and occurrence laws for all identified entity types, value types, property types, attribute types, and event types. The PM connects the CM and the AM of an SoI as far as production is concerned. All four sub-models are expressed in the DEMO Specification Language (DEMOSL), which comprises diagrams, tables, and formal textual descriptions. For producing essential models of enterprises, the WoW of DEMO offers the OER method (Organisational Essence Revealing). It consists of a number of steps in which the four aspect models are produced, preferably in a spiral way.

Making Search Engines Faster by Lowering the Cost of Querying Business Rules Through FPGAs

Abstract: Business Rule Management Systems (BRMSs) are widely used in industry for a variety of tasks. Their main advantage is to codify in a succinct and queryable manner vast amounts of constantly evolving logic. In BRMSs, rules are typically captured as facts (tuples) over a collection of criteria, and checking them involves querying the collection of rules to find the best match. In this paper, we focus on a real-world use case from the airline industry: determining the minimum connection time (MCT) between flights. The MCT module is part of the flight search engine, and captures the ever changing constraints at each airport that determine the time to allocate between an arriving and a departing flight for a connection to be feasible. We explore how to use hardware acceleration to (i) improve the performance of the MCT module (lower latency, higher throughput); and (ii) reduce the amount of computing resources needed. A key aspect of the solution is the transformation of a collection of rules into a Non-deterministic Finite state Automaton efficiently implemented on FPGA. Experiments performed on-premises and in the cloud show several orders of magnitude improvement over the existing solution, and the potential to reduce by 40% the number of machines needed for the flight search engine.

Towards a New Scalable Big Data System Semantic Web Applied on Mobile Learning

Abstract: In Web 3.0, semantic data gives machines the ability to understand and process data. Resource Description Framework (RDF) is the liagna franca of Semantic Web. While Big Data handles the problematic of storing and processing massive data, it still does not provide a support for RDF data. In this paper, we present a new Big Data semantic web comprised of a classical Big Data system with a semantic layer. As a proof of concept of our approach, we use Mobile-learning as a case study. The architecture we propose is composed of two main parts: a knowledge server and an adaptation model. The knowledge server allows trainers and business experts to represent their expertise using business rules and ontology to ensure heterogeneous knowledge. Then, in a mobility environment, the knowledge server makes it possible to take into account the constraints of the environment and the user constraints thanks to the RDF exchange format. The adaptation model based on RDF graphs corresponds to combinatorial optimization algorithms, whose objective is to propose to the learner a relevant combination of Learning Object based on its contextual constraints. Our solution guarantees scalability, and high data availability through the use of the principle of replication. The results obtained in the system evaluation experiments, on a large number of servers show the efficiency, scalability, and robustness of our system if the amount of data processed is very large.

Business Process Compliance Using Reference Models of Law

Abstract: Legal compliance is an important part of certifying the correct behaviour of a business process. To be compliant, organizations might hard-wire regulations into processes, limiting the discretion that workers have when choosing what activities should be executed in a case. Worse, hard-wired compliant processes are difficult to change when laws change, and this occurs very often. This paper proposes a model-driven approach to process compliance and combines a) reference models from laws, and b) business process models. Both reference and process models are expressed in a declarative process language, The Dynamic Condition Response (DCR) graphs. They are subject to testing and verification, allowing law practitioners to check consistency against the intent of the law. Compliance checking is a combination of alignments between events in laws and events in a process model. In this way, a reference model can be used to check different process variants. Moreover, changes in the reference model due to law changes do not necessarily invalidate existing processes, allowing their reuse and adaptation. We exemplify the framework via the alignment of laws and business rules and a real contract change management process, Finally, we show how compliance checking for declarative processes is decidable, and provide a polynomial time approximation that contrasts NP complexity algorithms used in compliance checking for imperative business processes. All-together, this paper presents technical and methodological steps that are being used by legal practitioners in municipal governments in their efforts towards digitalization of work practices in the public sector.

Demonstrating the Architecture for Situation-aware Logistics using Smart Returnable Assets

Abstract: Building on earlier work, this paper aims to demonstrate and discuss an instantiated architecture for situation-aware logistics in an operational environment using smart returnable assets. The demonstration is based on a motivation scenario focusing on exception management. The system outline and its components, interfaces, and enabling technologies are described and linked to the different layers of the architecture. This paper documents and illustrates the use of the system with detailed models and screenshots. Earlier work is extended using business rules to identify and quantify exceptions and potential disruptions. Specifically, it is shown how shipment data are enhanced with data from IoT sensors of smart returnable assets to provide situation-aware decision support based on data analytical methods. This demonstration provides scholars and practitioners, active in the fields of enterprise computing, insights into the concepts, models and engineering technologies used to implement an architecture for situation-aware logistics. The instantiated architecture provides a rich testbed for experiments, measurements, and incorporate the ideas promoted by the international data space initiative. An online recording is available to support the demonstration and ignite discussion about the potential of IoT technologies and future research directions in pursuit of the smart logistics vision.

From COBOL to Business Rules—Extracting Business Rules from Legacy Code

Abstract: The reverse engineering project described in this paper is aimed at documenting a 6.4 million lines of code COBOL/IMS/DB2 system for world-wide car leasing. The ultimate goal is to re-implement that system. The system was originally developed in the 1980s with less than 3 million code lines and has since evolved to its current size. It survived the year 2000 date change and the Euro conversion as well as several major company reorganizations to preserve the continuity of the leasing service. Finally, after 30 years of service it is planned to retire the system. However, the first two attempts to replace it, one by automatically converting it and the other by replacing it with a standard package ended in failure. It is now planned to rewrite the system based on a specification derived from the current code base. That specification includes among other documents a documentation of the processing rules. The extracted rules are intended to act as guide to those writing the new code.

The PSI Theory: Understanding the Operation of Organisations

Abstract: The PSI theory is a theory about the operation of organisations. PSI stands for Performing in Social Interaction. Based on the CIAO (Communication, Information, Action, and Organisation) paradigm, a communication-centric view is taken on the cooperation of people in enterprises, as manifested in business processes. The fundamental notion in understanding the operation of organisations is the coordination act. It consists of a performer, an addressee, an intention, and a product. The performer and the addressee are actors, that is, subjects filling an actor role. Actor roles are the units of authority and responsibility. Coordination acts can be performed verbally, non-verbally, and tacitly. They are the key elements in (business) conversations, which are the constituting parts of (business) transactions. A transaction is carried out by actors in two roles: the initiator and the executor. The executor brings about the product of the transaction to the benefit of the initiator. The process of a transaction is a path, possibly including iterations, through a universal transaction pattern, which consists of one main pattern and four revocation patterns. The latter serve to revert the state in the main pattern to a previous state. Because of the inherent connection between an actor role and the transaction kind of which fillers are the executor, the combination of the two is called transactor role. Transactor roles are the universal building blocks of business processes. Performing a coordination act results in creating the corresponding coordination fact. The time attributes of coordination facts are: the creation time and the event time, defined as the time at which the fact comes into existence. Regarding products (which consist of one independent production fact and a number of dependent facts), the notion of operative time (i.e., the time at which the product becomes effective) is distinguished, next to its event time, that is, its coming into existence, and its creation time. A fundamental principle in the PSI theory is that actors act autonomously, also if they are guided by business rules. Based on this principle, precise definitions are developed for the notions of authority, responsibility, accountability, and competence.

Digital Assistants in Managing Customer Relationships in Modern Companies

Abstract: The paper aims to determine the impact of digital transformation on the functionality of CRM solutions as digital assistants to managers, as well as the role of CRM systems in business processes of modern business entities. The concept of “CRM (Customer Relationships Management)” implies a business strategy based on using business rules and processes that are designed to engage consumers in a dialogue in order to obtain mutual benefits in trusting and transparent business environment. The authors developed the scheme “How to interest the customer”, in which an attempt is made to determine the distinctive features of the business process of customer service in companies that use CRM systems. The results obtained in this scientific study can be useful for developers of CRM systems who want to fully meet the needs of customers.

A Taxonomy of Business Rule Organizing Approaches in Regard to Business Process Compliance

Abstract: Business Process Compliance (BPC) bridges the disciplines of Business Process Management and Compliance Management, and is aimed to ensure that business processes are aligned with laws and regulations. In this context, business rules are used as a central means to represent regulatory policies and consequently to (automatedly) verify, whether business process models abide by respective rules. While there has been a plethora of works regarding this actual verification of process models relative to business rules, we see a strong lack of works regarding the actual creation and maintenance of business rules. More precisely, many works assume sound sets of business rules as a basis for subsequent techniques. However, recent works suggest this assumption cannot be made in practice, and companies actually need to be supported in the scope of managing and organizing business rules, e.g., to remove redundant or contradictory rules. Organizing business rules is a mandatory prerequisite to BPC, as errors in business rules make these rule bases unusable and impede a subsequent verification of process compliance. However, the literature on business rule organization is sparse - especially its relation to BPC. We therefore investigate how to harmonize company efforts in business rule organization and BPC by the means of a systematic literature review. The main contribution of this work is a guideline which supports companies to select appropriate rule organization approaches based on company BPC needs. Also, we identify research gaps and propose a corresponding research agenda based on our findings.

Using Agent-Based Simulation for Emergent Behavior Detection in Cyber-Physical Systems

Abstract: Traditional modeling approaches, based on predefined business logic, offer little support for today’s complex environments. In this paper, we propose a conceptual agent-based simulation framework to help not only discover complex business processes but also to analyze and learn from emergent behavior arising in cyber-physical systems. Techniques originating from agent-based modeling as well as from the process mining discipline are used to reinforce agent-based decision-making. Whereas agent-technology is used to orchestrate the integration and relationship between the environment and business logic activities, process mining capabilities are mainly used to discover and analyze emergent behavior. Using a functional decomposition approach, we specified three agent types: cyber-physical controller agent, business rule management agent, and emergent behavior detection agent. We use agent-based simulation of a logistics cold chain case study to demonstrate the feasibility of our approach.

Effects of enterprise sustainability on performance

Abstract: Contemporary business environment imposes new business rules. The maximization of profit and shareholder value cannot be the only aim of an enterprise. Instead, enterprises are forced to maximize value of all stakeholders in order to survive in the long run. The issue of sustainability has become of crucial significance, and especially measurement and reporting on sustainability, as well as, its effects on financial performances, as still dominant ones in the contemporary business performance measurement models. Hence, the subject of the research is the enterprise sustainability in the contemporary business environment. The aim of the research is to stress the role and the significance of the sustainability in the process of improving the enterprise efficiency. The research results show that the enterprise sustainability has the positive implications on the business performances in the long run, as well as on the welfare of all stakeholders. In order to be more transparent, it is desirable for enterprises to create the sustainability report, in the integration with the traditional business report, which would give the complete overview of enterprise efficiency.

Dispute initiation using artificial intelligence

Abstract: A system for artificial intelligent dispute resolution is disclosed. The system may receive a dispute initiation request from a voice input channel. The system may determine user authentication state in response to the dispute initiation request. The system may receive a natural language problem statement from the voice input channel. The system may determine a user intent in response to the natural language problem statement. The system may compare the user intent with a business rules set and determine a dispositioned outcome based on the business rules set and the user intent.

Sensemaking in Dual Artefact Tasks – The Case of Business Process Models and Business Rules

Abstract: Knowledge workers often have to navigate through multiple information artefacts to complete their tasks. Business process models and business rule repositories are two such artefacts, which when presented separately are known to cause a lack of shared understanding, conflicts and redundancies that can lead to inefficiencies and even compliance breaches. Although a number of integrated modeling approaches for business processes and rules have been proposed, there is a limited knowledge on how these approaches affect worker behavior and task performance. In this paper, we present the outcomes of an exploratory study undertaken to investigate the behavior of workers performing tasks that require dual artefacts namely business processes and rules. By using a sensemaking lens, our study reveals insights into worker behavior when the representation approach and task complexity is varied. Our results contribute to a better understanding of the sense making processes in various settings and inform modeling practice.

Usability of the Business Rules Specification Languages

Abstract: Business rules are used to define or limit certain aspects of business. While they should be understandable for different interested parties, including business analysts, end-users, programmers, or testers, it is also highly recommendable that computers efficiently process them. Business rules can be expressed using different languages (styles), potentially influencing their quality. The main aim of this research is to determine which of the business rule specification notations used at early stages of software development (CIM level) is the best for different groups of recipients. The paper presents the results of the experiment designed to compare the usability of two business rule specification languages: SBVR SP (Polish version of SBVR SE), and RuleSpeak®. These languages have very similar expressiveness and scope of application. Both introduce some restrictions on word order (grammar) and expressions used. Their usability was assessed from three perspectives: effectiveness, efficiency, and satisfaction. The study was conducted on three groups of participants representing various user groups. It occurred that SBVR SP is more useful than RuleSpeak.

Digitizing Service Level Agreements in Service-Oriented Enterprise Architecture

Abstract: As service-orientation gathers traction in enterprise engineering, more and more business processes and capabilities alike are wrapped up and viewed as services in today’s digital enterprises. Digital servitization is neither a rebranding nor a syntax sugar in enterprise engineering. It opens the door to innovative business models, novel system architecture, to name just a few. Central to service provisioning is the notion of commitment that captures contractual agreements between the provider and the consumer of the service in question, describing not only computer-interpretable factors (e.g., reliability, payment), but also business rules (e.g., service penalty) of the commitment. Widely known as the service level agreement, this building block of service-oriented enterprise engineering is pushed towards virtual when it comes to digital servitization. In this article, we propose a descriptive framework for digital enterprise services together with devised techniques for the alignment and reinforcement of the service level agreement. The relevance and applicability of the multi-perspective approach to service engineering are among our findings, which are illustrated using a few examples and a real-life case-study.