Using Measures of Ontological Distance to Evaluate the Alignment between Organizational Needs and Enterprise Systems Capabilities. Enterprise Systems (ES) packages are software systems that seek to provide their organizational users with comprehensive, integrated support for their information system needs. The development, implementation, operation, support, maintenance, and upgrade of enterprise systems is a multi-billion dollar industry. This industry is replete with stories of high-cost pro ....Using Measures of Ontological Distance to Evaluate the Alignment between Organizational Needs and Enterprise Systems Capabilities. Enterprise Systems (ES) packages are software systems that seek to provide their organizational users with comprehensive, integrated support for their information system needs. The development, implementation, operation, support, maintenance, and upgrade of enterprise systems is a multi-billion dollar industry. This industry is replete with stories of high-cost problems. Many of these problems arise because the business models embedded within ES packages do not align with the needs of their users. This project develops a methodology and measures to evaluate how well the business models embedded in an ES package meet user needs.Read moreRead less
Modelling in the Large. Business modelling supports a variety of approaches, which are currently of significant interest for Australian organisations. This includes business process management, risk management or Enterprise Architecture design. The trend to centralised and integrated business modelling leads to projects with a high number of models, modellers, users, and modelling purposes. This phenomenon is called modelling in the large. The proposed research project explores the major issues ....Modelling in the Large. Business modelling supports a variety of approaches, which are currently of significant interest for Australian organisations. This includes business process management, risk management or Enterprise Architecture design. The trend to centralised and integrated business modelling leads to projects with a high number of models, modellers, users, and modelling purposes. This phenomenon is called modelling in the large. The proposed research project explores the major issues within these projects and develops improved modelling techniques and project management approaches for large modelling initiatives. The outcomes will streamline the design, integration, maintenance and communication of models with a focus on Enterprise Systems.Read moreRead less
Next-Generation Reference Process Models. Business process modelling is a key tool for organisations striving to create efficiencies by leveraging their IT infrastructure. This project will develop techniques for increasing the productivity of business process analysts by allowing them to reuse as much as possible existing models rather than systematically desigining new ones from scratch. Specifically, the project will develop and validate a language for designing highly configurable process mo ....Next-Generation Reference Process Models. Business process modelling is a key tool for organisations striving to create efficiencies by leveraging their IT infrastructure. This project will develop techniques for increasing the productivity of business process analysts by allowing them to reuse as much as possible existing models rather than systematically desigining new ones from scratch. Specifically, the project will develop and validate a language for designing highly configurable process models. This language will enable superior approaches to business process modelling and hence smarter use of information. This will place Australia at the forefront of developments in business process management: a crucial technology in today's global, dynamic and heterogeneous environments.Read moreRead less
Cost-aware business process management. The project aims to inform business process management (BPM) with the latest insights from the field of management accounting in order to make BPM systems cost-aware. By incorporating the cost dimension, organisations can obtain an accurate and immediate overview of the true cost of their processes and make cost-informed decisions.
Business process decomposition. This project will develop guidelines to assist analysts in managing complex business processes by decomposing them into more manageable processes. The project outcomes will make it easier to make informed decisions about process re-design, business innovation or software development, thus contributing to project cost savings.
Ontologically-based Evaluation, Comparison and Engineering of Integrated Process Modelling Techniques. Integrated process modelling techniques such as UML and ARIS form the conceptual platform for many management and IT projects. Though most IS development tools contain these techniques, anecdotal evidence indicates many shortcomings. This project uses a well-established theory developed in philosophy and applied in information systems domains for the evaluation of these techniques. The expec ....Ontologically-based Evaluation, Comparison and Engineering of Integrated Process Modelling Techniques. Integrated process modelling techniques such as UML and ARIS form the conceptual platform for many management and IT projects. Though most IS development tools contain these techniques, anecdotal evidence indicates many shortcomings. This project uses a well-established theory developed in philosophy and applied in information systems domains for the evaluation of these techniques. The expected outcomes are evaluations of ARIS and UML. Thus, this project contributes to the development of two of the most popular modelling techniques. Based on the theory used and the results of an international empirical study, suggestions for the further development of these techniques will be derived.Read moreRead less
Design of a Reference Methodology for Extended Enterprise Architecture. Enterprises have nowadays a very critical perception of the actual benefits of Information Technology (IT). Significant investments in IT infrastructures have been made. However, in many cases no monetary benefits could be demonstrated. Enterprises Architectures provide a way to link the business and the IT perspective. This project aims to develop an operational methodology with a solid theoretical foundation for the design ....Design of a Reference Methodology for Extended Enterprise Architecture. Enterprises have nowadays a very critical perception of the actual benefits of Information Technology (IT). Significant investments in IT infrastructures have been made. However, in many cases no monetary benefits could be demonstrated. Enterprises Architectures provide a way to link the business and the IT perspective. This project aims to develop an operational methodology with a solid theoretical foundation for the design of such Enterprise Architectures. The outcomes and the innovation of this project are an extension of the popular Zachman Framework. Integrated modelling techniques proposed within the Architecture of Integrated Information Systems will be used to populate this framework.Read moreRead less
Formally-Based Security Evaluation Procedures. Guaranteeing information security is of critical national importance, especially in the current political climate. Devices intended to safeguard Australia's electronic communications must be proven secure using leading-edge techniques. Currently, evaluation of such devices relies on informal procedures and the experience of individuals. This project will introduce more rigour into security evaluations by adapting techniques from the fields of saf ....Formally-Based Security Evaluation Procedures. Guaranteeing information security is of critical national importance, especially in the current political climate. Devices intended to safeguard Australia's electronic communications must be proven secure using leading-edge techniques. Currently, evaluation of such devices relies on informal procedures and the experience of individuals. This project will introduce more rigour into security evaluations by adapting techniques from the fields of safety analysis and formal methods. In particular, mathematical concepts will be introduced using notations suitable for use by security personnel with no prior formal methods experience. The outcomes of this project will enable more efficient and effective information security evaluations.Read moreRead less
A Formal Approach to Resource Allocation in Service Oriented Marketplaces. There was a strong opinion at the 2004 World Economic Forum that interorganisational computing was a major factor in productivity improvements underpinning continuing economic growth in the developed world, and will continue to be so for the foreseeable future. The results of the proposed research are directed to advanced systems of this type, and will add momentum to Australia's Information Technology research community. ....A Formal Approach to Resource Allocation in Service Oriented Marketplaces. There was a strong opinion at the 2004 World Economic Forum that interorganisational computing was a major factor in productivity improvements underpinning continuing economic growth in the developed world, and will continue to be so for the foreseeable future. The results of the proposed research are directed to advanced systems of this type, and will add momentum to Australia's Information Technology research community. Increased international recognition will positively impact on future interactions with the service composition research groups in Europe and the USA.Read moreRead less
Harmonized Messaging - A New Foundation for Automated Process Communication. Process communication, especially in web environments is characterized by complex interactions between heterogeneous and autonomous systems within the enterprise and often between trading partners. An overwhelming number of initiatives and proposals are underway to provide solutions for process specification and communication. However, the focus is often on defining APIs rather than the semantics of the underlying messa ....Harmonized Messaging - A New Foundation for Automated Process Communication. Process communication, especially in web environments is characterized by complex interactions between heterogeneous and autonomous systems within the enterprise and often between trading partners. An overwhelming number of initiatives and proposals are underway to provide solutions for process specification and communication. However, the focus is often on defining APIs rather than the semantics of the underlying message exchange. We see a great potential in changing the current messaging infrastructure to suit its new role in facilitating complex, long running interactions for collaborative processes operating in a decentralized environment. This envisaged next generation of messaging technology will extend its ability to support dynamic business processes in a web-centric environment. Providing a level of harmonisation to multiple messages to form a single custom definable backbone of a newly formed message stream, creates a highly challenging new research direction. There is a strong potential that the project outcomes will present a new way of overcoming well understood difficulties in dealing with multiple communicating processes owned by different partners and executing on disparate systems.Read moreRead less