Contributed on September 3, 2014

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Examining Adaptive Case Management to Support Processes for EAM

Description

Enterprise Architecture (EA) management is a well-defined practice for conducting coherent analysis, design, planning, and implementation for the successful execution of business strategy. In practice many organizations are struggling with EA frameworks since the processes to manage the EA are not adequately supported. In this paper we examine Adaptive Case Management (ACM) as an emerging paradigm to support agile, lean, and collaborative processes for EA management (EAM). In contrast to traditional workflow management, ACM empowers end users to adapt their processes at run-time. Based on the findings of an extensive literature review we derived requirements for ACM and developed a prototype based on these requirements to support processes for EAM. We applied our solution for the development of a planned state of the architecture in the EA department of a German insurance organization. The findings from expert interviews with three enterprise architects and two EA consultants of this insurance organization are very promising and provide valuable insights how more effective process support for EAM can be achieved in the future.

Transcript

TEAR 2014
Examining Adaptive Case Management to
Support Processes for EAM
01.09.2014
Matheus Hauder, Dominik Münch, Felix Michel, Alexej Utz, and Florian Matthes
Software Engineering for Business Information Systems (sebis)
Department of Informatics
Technische Universität München, Germany
wwwmatthes.in.tum.de
Agenda
1. Motivation
 Enterprise Architecture Management processes
 Adaptive Case Management
2. Methodology
 Research method
 Research questions
3. Contributions
 Requirements for ACM support
 Development of a planned EA state
4. Conclusion and future work
 Discussion of the results
 Future work
Research Challenges in Adaptive Case Management: A Literature Review 2
Managing an Enterprise Architecture is a very
knowledge-intensive problem
 Instruments for the effective
management of an EA are information
models, reports, as well as processes
to develop, manage, and maintain
the EA
 While documentation and analysis of
EA information models are already
investigated by researchers and
practicioners, research on process
support for EA management is missing
to a large extent
Lankhorst TOGAF ADM
FEAF Armour et al.
Software support for processes in EA management is challenging due to
frequent exceptions and the knowledge intensive characteristics
Research Challenges in Adaptive Case Management: A Literature Review 3
Why are processes for knowledge work difficult to
support?
Supporting processes for knowledge work is challenging due to:
 Processes don‘t need to be predefined completely, but depend on evolving
situations and decisions by humans
 Process models are defined based on the knowledge of human experts and not
(only) on process analysts or software developers
 Complex problems that were not solved yet in the organization are typical for
knowledge work
 Emergent design of processes in a collaborative manner by knowledge workers
Research Challenges in Adaptive Case Management: A Literature Review 4
Adaptive Case Management aims to support
processes for collaborative knowledge work
Criterion Classic BPM ACM
Structure Process-model Case-template
Role separation during
conception and execution
Yes No
Time separation between
conception and execution
Yes No
Flexibility of customization Medium High
Flexibility of usage Low High
Types of processes Routine process
Knowledge-intensive,
weakly structured
processes
Process control Control flow Goal oriented
System organization Focused on process Focused on data
Investment High Low
5
Adaptive Case Management focuses on processes that have a weak
structure and are constantly adjusted by everyone involved
Research Challenges in Adaptive Case Management: A Literature Review
Literature on Adaptive Case Management
 Full text search with „Adaptive Case Management“ revealed 41 references
mainly from book chapters (39 %), conferences (29 %) and workshops (25 %)
 Only a small number of journal publications are available (7 %) on Adaptive
Case Management until now
 All analyzed articles were published between 2003 and 2014, whereas almost
half of these papers were published later than 2012
Type of publications on ACM uncertainty
12
10
8
6
4
2
0
Publications on ACM by year
2002 2004 2006 2008 2010 2012 2014
Conference
29%
Journal
7%
Workshop
25%
Book chapter
39%
Research Challenges in Adaptive Case Management: A Literature Review 6
Research questions
Research
Question 1
What are the requirements that
need to be fulfilled for Adaptive
Case Management support?
Research
Question 2
How can an Adaptive Case
Management solution be
applied to support EAM
processes?
Research
Question 3
To which extent is Adaptive
Case Management useful for
EAM processes in practice?
Research Challenges in Adaptive Case Management: A Literature Review 7
Methodology
 Analysis on the state of the art workflow, case management, and processes in
EA management
 Based on requirements that are derived from literature a prototype is developed
for Adaptive Case Managemend and applied within a case study.
 Evaluation of the case study based on five interviews with EA experts
1. SCOPE OF RESEARCH
Analysis of the state of the art
for Enterprise Architecture (EA)
processes.
5. EVALUATION
Evaluation with enterprise
architects and EA consultants.
Deliverable: Transcript of expert
interviews
!
!
!
Finding 1
Finding 2
Finding 3
3. PROTOTYPE
Development of an Adaptive
Case Management prototpye
for EA processes.
Deliverable: Deliverable: Research questions Implemented prototype
2. LITERATURE REVIEW
Derivation of requirements for
an Adaptive Case Management
solution.
4. CASE STUDY
Case study of the prototype at
a leading German insurance
organization.
Deliverable: Requirements for Adaptive
Case Management
Deliverable: EA process implemented in
the prototype
?
?
?
Research Question 1
Research Question 2
Research Question 3
Research Challenges in Adaptive Case Management: A Literature Review 8
Requirements for Adaptive Case Management
support derived from literature
Flexibility and adaptability of cases R1 instances during run-time
R2 Evolving case templates for the continuous collaborative improvement of processes
R3 Responsibilties in the case are transparent to other workers
R4 Progress of the case has to be visible
R5 Flexible assignment of new roles during run-time
R6 Definition of goals and objectives for the case
R7 Organization tasks in hierarchies
Requirements for Adaptive Case Management
R8 Integration of data in the execution of the cases
R9 Definition of logical and temporal dependencies between tasks
R10 Case templates understandable and adaptable for end users
Research Challenges in Adaptive Case Management: A Literature Review 9
Declarative process models as guidelines for people
that have to deal with unforeseen circumstances
Similar to programming languages business process models can also be described
with the imperative or declarative paradigm, whereas declarative process models
are better suited for unforeseen circumstances (see Fahland et al.).
 Imperative programming: Describes computation in terms of statements that
change a programm state through sequences of commands for the computer.
 Declarative programming: Expressing the logic of a computation without
describing its control flow by describing what the program should accomplish.
Source: social-biz.org
Research Challenges in Adaptive Case Management: A Literature Review 10
Dependencies between tasks are defined with the
Case Management Model and Notation (CMMN)
Scope of CMMN
 Visual language that builds upon
descriptive process models
 Common meta-model and notation for
modeling and graphically expressing a
Case
 Interchange format for exchanging Case
models among different tools
Current State of CMMN
 Specifications have been released by the
Object Management Group
 Version 1.0 has been released in May,
2014
© sebis 11
Task
Matthes Sebis Research
Source: Opitz Consulting (2014)
Tasks for the development of a planned state in
TOGAF‘s Architecture Development Method (ADM)
Architecture
Context
Architecture
Governance
Transition
Planing
Develop
target
business
architecture
Document
baseline
architecture
Architecture
Delivery
Define views
for
stakeholder
concerns Create draft of
Develop
business
architecture
roadmap
Create draft
of
architecture
requirements
Create draft of
architecture
definition
document
Create draft of
architecture
requirements
specification with
technology
architecture
requirements
Refine and
update
versions of
the
architecture
vision phase
architecture
requirements
specification
Refine and
update versions
of the
architecture
vision phase
Develop
application
architecture
roadmap
Define views
for stakeholder
concerns
Refine and update
versions of the
architecture vision
phase
Tasks
Create draft of
architecture
definition
Define views document
for
stakeholder
concerns
Develop
technology
architecture
roadmap
Research Challenges in Adaptive Case Management: A Literature Review 12
Adaptive Case Management prototyp for EA
management processes
Research Challenges in Adaptive Case Management: A Literature Review 13
Results of the expert interviews
 Continous improvement of the
template is feasible for the
development of a planned EA state
 Flexible role concept improves
collaboration in the process
 Better transparency of open tasks and
responsibilites
× Further meta data is required for tasks
 Other processes that could be
supported according are:
 Audits (compliance and regulatory)
 Elicitation of architectural
requirements
 Security assessments
 Documentation of the EA
Job Title
# years of
experience
Industry sector
(Lead) Enterprise
Architect
10 Insurance
EA Consultant 10 IT consulting
Enterprise Architect < 1 Insurance
Enterprise Architect 6 Insurance
EA Consultant < 1 IT consulting
Empowering Business Users to Collaboratively Structure Knowledge-Intensive Processes 9/2/2014 14
Discussion of the results
Summary of the findings:
 EA management processes are currently not adequately supported through
software and there is a lack of research on this topic
 ACM as an approach to support processes for knowledge work is gaining
interest among researchers over the past two years
 Presented paper is the first approach to apply concepts form ACM in the domain
of EA and initial results from the evaluation are convincing
Future work:
 Incorporation of the feedback received from the domain experts on the
prototype
 Investigation of other domains that can benefit from a better software support for
knowledge intensive problems
 Software experiment with students to empirically validate the approach
Research Challenges in Adaptive Case Management: A Literature Review 15
Future work
 Project site with further information and references
 Publications and presentations available for download
 Additional material on the project
Link: Empowering Users to Collaboratively Structure Knowledge-Intensive
Processes
Research Challenges in Adaptive Case Management: A Literature Review 16
Technische Universität München
Department of Informatics
Chair of Software Engineering for
Business Information Systems
Boltzmannstraße 3
85748 Garching bei München
Tel +49.89.289.
Fax +49.89.289.17136
wwwmatthes.in.tum.de
Matheus Hauder
M. Sc.
17104
Matheus.Hauder@tum.de
Thank you for your attention!