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Service Computing and Business Process Management Summary This project will consolidate, analyse and further explore the major issues related to Business Process and Service Management, and arrive at a set of success factors for sustainable business process and service technologies. The project will apply a number of research methods (survey, Delphi study, and focus groups) and use established contacts to key organizations in order to derive a research portfolio in this area. Such a portfolio can be used for evaluative and directive purposes for future EII-related research. The project will also aim to contribute to the body of research in the related fields of service composition, service transaction management, web service modelling, adaptive service management, and grid services. Research on these and related topics will be partially guided by the preliminary results of the identified major issues in Business Process and Service Management. The contributions will be in the form of publication of journal and/or conference papers and organization of a workshop to foster the exchange of research ideas and creation of further research collaboration. Taskforce Member Summary The taskforce will be coordinated by Prof. Yanchun Zhang and Dr. Marta Indulska, with the involvement of senior members such as: Prof Peter Green, Prof. Igor Hawryszkiewycz, Prof Michael Rosemann, and Prof. Graeme Shanks; as well as input and advice from the EII Convener and Research Coordinator, Prof Maria Orlowska, and Prof Xiaofang Zhou. Ms Wasana Bandara, Queensland University of Technology Dr Boualem Benatallah, UNSW Dr Mark Cameron, CSIRO ICT Centre Dr Sandy Chong, Curtin University Dr Leonid Churilov, Monash University Dr Marlon Dumas, Queensland University of Technology Prof Peter Green, University of Queensland Prof Jun Han, Swinburne University Prof Igor Hawryszkiewycz, University of Technology Sydney Dr Marta Indulska, University of Queensland, (co-coordinator) Prof Ryszard Kowalczyk, Swinburne University Dr Shonali Krishnaswamy, Monash University A/Prof Xuemin Lin, University of New South Wales A/Prof Chengfei Liu, Swinburne Uniiversity A/Prof Yuan Miao, Victoria University Dr Helen Paik, Queensland University of Technology Prof Michael Rosemann, Queensland University of Technology Dr Shazia Sadiq, University of Queensland Prof Graeme Shanks, Monash University Dr Kerry Taylor, CSIRO ICT Centre Dr Hua Wang, University of Southern Queensland, A/Prof Jian Yang, Macquarie University. Prof Yanchun Zhang, Victoria University, (co-coordinator) Significance, Objectives, and Outcomes Scope of the Domain Business Process Management (BPM) is now widely accepted as a design paradigm for organizational and IT-driven re-design initiatives. Increasingly, business processes are seen from the viewpoint of how well they contribute to the efficient and coordinated delivery of services. Identification of inefficient processes may lead to the planned improvement of those processes, or, in some cases, to the decision to scrap the processes and outsource them to another organisation (i.e. forming virtual organisations). The Service-Oriented-Architecture (SOA) provides the necessary foundations that enable organisations to discover and select external processes or “services” they would like to use, and also offer their own processes to other organisations. In other words, SOA supports Web Services – the provision of business processes to interested parties via the Web. Thus, this area covers the entire spectrum from Computer Science (e.g. Web Services Standards, peer-to-peer services) to Information Systems (e.g. success factors for sustainable BPM) with many overlapping topics (e.g. appropriate modelling techniques for different stakeholder groups, process mining, etc.). Significance and Objectives As an emerging cross discipline area for distributed computing, service-oriented computing is shaping the process of business modelling, software design, development and management. Services are autonomous, platform-independent computational elements that can be described, published, discovered, orchestrated and programmed using standard protocols for collaborating applications distributed within and across organizational boundaries. Service-oriented computing addresses how to enable technology to help people perform business processes more efficiently and effectively, ultimately resulting in a gain to the organisation. It applies the science and technology for bridging the gap between Business Services and IT Services. Currently, it encompasses a diverse technology suite: Web services and SOA, business process integration and management, utility/grid computing, autonomic computing, as well as the business and scientific applications. Web Services are the fundamental building blocks of SOA. Web Services provide the basis for the development and execution of business processes that are distributed over the network and available via standard interfaces and protocols – they therefore enable the creation of dynamic virtual enterprises. Due to standard interfaces, web Services have evolved as a dominant technology for integrating business processes and applications across organisation boundaries on the Web. Although SOA has not presented new fundamental computing challenges, adopting the service oriented computing paradigm has the potential to bring about reduced programming complexity and costs, lower maintenance costs, faster time-to-market, new revenue streams and improved operational efficiency. Reducing costs and improving operational efficiency through the streamlining and improvement of business processes, are, in particular, of critical importance for organisations in today’s highly competitive Internet-enabled world. Business Process Management has been identified as the number one business priority and building Business Process Capability is seen as a major challenge for senior executives within the coming years (Gartner 2005). Increasingly, BPM is perceived as a way to align and increase the contribution of information systems to the business. Workflow management systems provide a stable platform for the execution of business processes and it is expected that the market for related BPM solutions will reach $1.1 billion by 2009 (at $416.4 million in 2003) (WinterGreen Research 2004). This study aims for a deeper understanding of the main issues in BPM supported by SOA by applying a number of research methods and iteratively gaining an increased knowledge of the most critical challenges. Such an understanding will be of significance for the setup of relevant research projects in this area. Furthermore, its cross-disciplinary nature will provide important insights into the generalisability of the research conducted here in Australia. It would be highly innovative as most previous studies conducted in this area do not attempt to evaluate the two paradigms against a common criteria. This study will involve key international researchers and organizations, using the comprehensive contacts of the project team, which include among others:
Outcomes and Deliverables Outcomes of the combined taskforce are presented under three broad groups of preliminary study, research tasks and preparation of deliverables: Preliminary Study
Research Tasks The following will be done synergistically with the initial results of the industry forums as input:
Preparation of Deliverables
All deliverables will be summarised and made accessible via the EII web repository. It is also intended to consolidate the main outcomes in the form of teaching materials, which could be used for advanced seminars as part of the EII PhD Spring School. A focused workshop on service oriented computing and business process management issues will also be organised and contributed by the involved CIs and PIs. Our world known collaborators can be invited to visit taskforce members during the workshop or in Summer/Winter to conduct a winter/summer school to our PhD students in web service or service computing area. The taskforce will continue operations after the initial funding period, and expand its membership and collaboration, with an ultimate goal of developing a strong proposal for an ARC Centre of Excellence in this research area. Impact for the EII Network The outcomes of this project will provide valuable input to the research agenda for EII members. The derived research portfolio will position the top-ranked issues and provides a way to guarantee the relevance and actual impact of related research. It will help to map existing and planned future research on Business Process and Service Management against the core issues as perceived by the relevant wider community. The project will also provide Early Career Researchers with the opportunity to actively participate in a challenging and cross-disciplinary project. This will lead to an increased personal network, visibility in terms of academic publications and public presentations, as well as an overall maturity in conducting applied research. Core Participants Taskforce Members Dr Boualem Benatallah [BB], UNSW http://www.cse.unsw.edu.au/~boualem/ Dr Benatallah will contribute his expertise in web and databases, web services, and workflow management systems. Dr Mark Cameron [MC], CSIRO ICT Centre http://www.ict.csiro.au/staff/Mark.Cameron/ Dr Cameron has expertise in decision support systems, web services and data integration for virtual enterprises. Dr Sandy Chong [SC], Curtin University Dr Chong’s research interests lie in the areas of information systems, innovative business practice and Electronic Commerce adoption by Small- and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs). She is currently concentrating on studying BPM adoption and maturity of the Western Australian wine industry, and will contribute her expertise in this area to the project. Sandy has a management and marketing background, which will also give a more business-oriented perspective into this project. Additionally, she has experience with quantitative research and analysis, as well as solid expertise and contacts with SMEs. Dr Leonid Churilov [LC], Monash University http://www.csse.monash.edu.au/research/OandCS/groupmembers/staff/leonidchurilov.html Dr Churilov’s area of research expertise is the interface between decision making and process modelling for effective decision support for business and industry. In particular, this involves research projects in optimisation, simulation, and systems dynamics, as well as integrated process modelling studies for enterprise planning. He will contribute to this project his expertise in bridging decision making and process modelling. Dr Marlon Dumas [MD], Queensland University of Technology http://sky.fit.qut.edu.au/~dumas/ Dr Dumas’ main research areas are service-oriented architectures and web services, application integration, and Business Process Management, and he will contribute his expertise in these research areas to the project. Marlon is currently involved in a number of large projects in these areas. He has widely published in international journals such as IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering, IEEE Transactions on Knowledge and Data Engineering, and International Journal of Business Process Integration and Management among others. Prof Peter Green [PG], The University of Queensland http://www.business.uq.edu.au/staff/academic/pgreen.phtml Prof Green has made significant contributions to the theory and practice of Information Systems. He has been working consistently in the area of ontological evaluation and development of information systems grammars, in particular process modelling, since 1994. He will contribute his extensive expertise in these areas, as well as experience with various research methods, to the project. Prof Jun Han [JH], Swinburne University http://www.it.swin.edu.au/personal/jhan/ Prof Han will contribute his expertise in software and system architectures, system integration and evolution, services engineering, component-based software engineering, enterprise systems engineering, and software/service security engineering. Prof Igor Hawryszkiewycz [IH], University of Technology Sydney http://www-staff.it.uts.edu.au/~igorh/ Prof Hawryszkiewycz will contribute his expertise in system modelling, knowledge analysis for distributed systems, agent technology, and groupware. Dr Marta Indulska [MI], The University of Queensland http:// www.business.uq.edu.au/staff/academic/mindulska.phtml Dr Indulska’s research focus lies mainly in the areas of enterprise systems interoperability, business process modelling, and ontology. Marta has experience with ontological analysis of various business process specification grammars. Marta’s main contribution to the project will be in terms of expertise in these areas as well as in the form of project coordination activities. Prof Ryszard Kowalczyk [RK], Swinburne University http://www.it.swin.edu.au/staff/rkowalczyk Prof Kowalczyk will contribute his expertise in complex agent negotiations and decision-making, agent coordination and dynamic virtual organisations, agent-based service management, complex adaptive systems and advanced web/grid services. Dr Shonali Krishnaswamy [SK], Monash University http://www.csse.monash.edu.au/~shonali/ Dr Krishnaswamy is an ARC Australian Postdoctoral Fellow and an Early Career Researcher. She has been active in the web services and service oriented computing research areas, particularly focusing on quality of service in web services. A/Prof Xuemin Lin [XL], University of New South Wales http://www.cse.unsw.edu.au/~lxue/ A/Prof Lin will contribute his expertise in database systems, and optimization in peer to peer computing. A/Prof Chengfei Liu [CL], Swinburne Uni http://www.ict.swin.edu.au/staff/cliu A/Prof Liu will contribute his expertise in workflows and transactional workflows, web service transactions and the semantic web. A/Prof Yuan Miao [YM], Victoria University A/Prof Miao has been active in, and will contribute his expertise in, the research area of agent computing. Dr Helen Paik [HP], Queensland University of Technology http://sky.fit.qut.edu.au/~paik/ Dr Paik is a lecturer and Early Career Researcher, and has been active in the web services, peer-to-peer systems, data integration, and adaptive systems/personalisation research areas. Prof Michael Rosemann [MR], Queensland University of Technology http://sky.fit.qut.edu.au/~rosemann/ Prof Rosemann has an established track record on Business Process Management, process modelling, enterprise systems and ontology, and will contribute his expertise in these research areas to this project. His model for measuring Business Process Management maturity has been a key contribution to the design of a proposed new global model for BPM Maturity management. Michael has been asked to head an international Delphi study, which aims to populate this model in more detail. The participants in this study include among others BPM experts such as Tom Davenport, James Champy, Steve Stanton, Andrew Spanyi and Paul Harmon. Dr Shazia Sadiq [SS], The University of Queensland http:// www.itee.uq.edu.au/~shazia/ Dr Sadiq’s main research interests are innovative solutions for Business Process Management that span several technology areas including workflow systems, service oriented computing, and messaging technologies. Her research focuses on novel applications for BPM that go beyond the known business domains, such as e-learning and deployments of large scale smart devices (e.g. RFID tags, sensor networks). She will contribute her research expertise in these areas to the project. Ms Wasana Bandara [WB], Queensland University of Technology http://www.itps.fit.qut.edu.au/researchers/ Ms Bandara has been involved in a number of Business Process Management related research projects (at both individual and collaborative levels) and has specialized expertise in the areas of process analysis and process mapping. She is also skilled and experienced in the methods proposed within the research design of this project, namely the case study, survey and Delphi methods. Hence, she will contribute to the project from the perspectives of content and methodology. Prof Graeme Shanks [GS], Monash University http://www.bsys.monash.edu.au/staff/gshanks/ Prof Shanks will contribute his expertise in conceptual modelling, ontology, business process management, and enterprise information systems. Dr Kerry Taylor [KT], CSIRO ICT Centre http://www.ict.csiro.au/staff/Kerry.Taylor/ Dr Taylor has expertise in theoretical aspects of ontology, and service composition planning, coupled with leadership of the technical development of successful virtual enterprise systems. Dr Hua Wang [HW], University of Southern Queensland http://www.sci.usq.edu.au/staff/wang/ Dr Wang is a lecturer and Early Career Researcher and has been active in research area of security, particularily as it applies to web service access control. A/Prof Jian Yang [JY], Macquarie Univ http://www.comp.mq.edu.au/~jian/ A/Prof Yang will contribute her expertise in e-business transaction management, web service description, discovery, and composition; interoperability and business process modelling. Prof Yanchun Zhang [YZ], Victoria University, Taskforce Co-coordinator http://csm.vu.edu.au/~yzhang. Prof. Zhang will primarily contribute with his expertise in web service transaction management and access control management. He will also contribute in the form of project coordination activities. International Collaborators The following well-known international leaders in service-oriented computing and business process management have agreed to contribute to the taskforce: Prof. Joerg Becker, University of Muenster, Germany Prof. Chris Bussler, National University of Ireland, Ireland http://hometown.aol.com/chbussler/ Dr. Fabio Casati, Hewlett-Packard, USA Prof. Mike Papazoglou Univ. of Tilburg, Netherlands. Dr. Liangjie Zhang, IBM, USA A/Prof. Michael zur Muehlen, Stevens Institute of Technology, USA http://howe.stevens.edu/Faculty/MichaelzurMuehlen.htm Existing collaborations and research Many of the taskforce members have already made impacts in the research areas of service-oriented computing and business process management, or related research areas such as service protocol modelling, business collaboration modelling and design, transaction processing, and workflow management. They have published in top journals such as ACM Communication, ACM TODS, IEEE TKDE, Information Systems, and many more. They have been key organisers for various conferences and workshops on service-oriented computing, business process management, web information systems, and service engineering. Collaboration exists among, and between, the taskforce members either through joint research projects and publications or through co-organising of related conferences or workshops. All listed international collaborators also have long associations or collaborations with key taskforce and EII members. These existing achievements and the existing collaboration will put them in a strong position to succeed. |
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