Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
The above parameters formally give eight classes that we call communication styles.
Let us consider
Automatic
as a more advanced feature than
Manual
,
Localized
as a
more advanced feature than
Global
, and
Instructive
as a more advanced feature than
Non-instructive
. Then we can present the classification as a cube in a three-
dimensional space where a “basic” style
Manual/Global/Non-instructive
constitutes a
zero point, see Fig. 4.
Table 1 below presents styles employed in the systems discussed in this paper.
As we can see, each system employs a style that includes only one advanced feature,
which means that all styles employed in the systems lie on the axes of the cube in
Fig. 4. We call such styles “pure” communication styles, as an opposite to other non-
basic styles, which we call “mixed” styles.
Table 1.
Communication styles employed in the systems discussed
Issuing technique
Invitation scope
Invitation
instructiveness
Collaborative
planning (ProBis)
Manual
Global
Instructive
Specialized
structure (iPB)
Manual
Localized
Non-instructive
Status
change
Automatic
Global
Non-instructive
(eForm)
In Section 2, we stressed that an invitation to visit a particular shared space should
give the process participant a clear understanding on why he/she has been invited and
what he/she is expected to do there. In the case of eForm, shared spaces are simply
structured, thus neither localization nor instructiveness is needed for the invited
person to understand what he/she is supposed to do.
Both ProBis and iPB allow quite complicated structures of shared spaces, thus
some help is needed to find out what is required from the invited person. In ProBis,
this help is provided by instructiveness, which compensates the absence of
localization. In iPB, this help is provided by localization, which compensates the
absence of instructiveness.
As we already mentioned, the systems discussed in this paper implement “pure”
communication styles (only one advanced feature is present in each of them). It does
not mean that a mixture is not possible or useful, but only that one advanced feature is
sufficient for certain practical purposes as outlined in Sections 3.2, 4.2 and 5.2.
7 Related Works
Works on which the current paper is based are as follows. The earliest attempt to
systematically build a BPS system based on the principles outlined in Section 2
(shared spaces along with collaborative and automated planning) was made in 1989-
1990. The project, called “DealDriver”, is described in [12], [13]. The ideas from
the DealDriver project were first presented to the research audience in [14]. More
detailed introduction into the state-oriented view on business processes that has been
