Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
2.PBWDdesignofmonitoringprocess
2.3Generate
process
modelfor
l dh
1.Monitoring
requirements
elicitation
2.1Design
ProductData
Model (PDM)
3.ServiceͲ
oriented
implementation
2.2Select
optimalpath
Model(PDM)
selectedpath
elicitation
implementation
Fig. 2.
Methodology for PBWD of monitoring processes
PBWD is particularly well-suited for achieving a process-centric view on mon-
itoring in cross-organizational processes because of two reasons:
-
Clean-sheet approach to process design
: PBWD builds process models di-
rectly from the specification of the informational products involved in the
process and their dependencies. This approach is a perfect fit for monitoring
cross-organizational business processes, since the monitoring process must
be built from the monitoring information made available by the collaborat-
ing parties. Note that, in highly dynamic collaborations, partner selection
is
late-bound
, and collaborating parties are selected dynamically as they be-
come available [9];
-
Cost- and quality-aware process design
: PDMs, i.e. available informational
products and their dependencies, can be enriched with information about
the cost of producing an information product or its quality for the interested
stakeholders. PBWD can then derive various process specifications for the
same PDM that differ for their overall costs and quality. The possibility to
tune the costs and the quality of the process is an essential feature to derive
the most suitable monitoring process for a given stakeholder. When a process
is not mission critical, for instance, the monitoring process can be designed
by maximizing its quality given a budget constraint, whereas in contexts
characterized by severe quality requirements, for instance in highly regu-
lated industries, such as healthcare, monitoring processes can be designed
by minimizing the monitoring costs while guaranteeing a given required level
of quality.
Fig. 2 shows the steps of the methodology for creating monitoring processes using
PBWD for a specific stakeholder in the collaboration. After having analyzed
the monitoring requirements of the stakeholder, the application of PBWD to
monitoring processes design involves three steps.
First, the Product Data Model (PDM) of the stakeholder is designed. The
PDM, which is the starting point for the PBWD method, is similar to the concept
of a Bill-of-Materials (BoM) [14] used in manufacturing environments to manage
and control production processes. Since (digital) information is more flexible
than physical products, however, the PDM contains more complex structures
than a BoM, such as re-use of information or alternative paths to produce an
information element.
Second, among the set of all paths in the PDM that can lead to the correct
production of monitoring information, the path which satisfies the non-functional
requirements of the stakeholder is selected. As discussed later, we consider the
cost, (data) quality, and availability dimensions to specify non-functional re-
quirements.
