Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
co-owners to process steps. eForm uses a list management system to attract the
attention of the end-users.
To compare the above mechanisms, we need to abstract from the technical details
and consider each mechanism as a way of issuing invitations to visit a shared space.
Then, the three mechanisms described in the previous sections can be interpreted as
follows.
In ProBis, a task planned for a person represents a manually issued invitation for
him/her to visit the process instance shared space with detailed instructions of what
he/she is supposed to do there (whom to call, what document to read, etc.). In an iPB-
based application, assignment to be owner/co-owner of a step represents a manually
issued invitation for this person to visit a particular part of the process instance shared
space (a form corresponding to the given step) without any instructions on what
he/she is supposed to do there. In eForm, a form appearing in the given person's
process list represents an automatically issued invitation to visit the process instance
shared space without any instructions on what he/she is supposed to do there.
Generalizing the above, we suggest the following three parameters with binary
values for identifying communication styles:
Issuing technique (
Manual/Automatic
) - an invitation is issued manually by one of
the process participants, or automatically by a system based on the state of the
shared space.
•
•
Invitation scope (
Global/Localized
) - a person is invited to visit the whole shared
space or a particular part of it.
Invitation instructiveness (
Non-instructive/Instructive
) - a person should
him/herself figure out what to do in the shared space based on the state in which
he/she finds it when he/she comes there, or an invitation may include instructions
on what a person is supposed to do there.
•
Instructiveness
Pure styles
Mixed styles
Instructive
Basic
Style
Automatic
Localized
Issuing
Technique
Scope
Fig. 4.
Communication Styles
