Business processes fragments to promote information quality

PurposeThe primary concern of quality improvement in processes is not the input–output conversion but the information that enables and controls process. This paper presents process fragments for dimensions of information quality (IQ).Design/methodology/approachResearch is based on the design science paradigm to create four fragments of reusable processes, that contemplate the following dimensions of IQ: accessibility, completeness, accuracy and consistency.FindingsThere is a theoretical discussion of the concept of IQ in process models, in which the fragments presented provide designers with a reduction in modeling time through reuse. Therefore, the designer has the flexibility to improve the IQ according to the context of each process.Practical implicationsThe discussion is relevant for both researchers and business designers because it shows that IQ is essential to guarantee the efficient execution of processes.Social implicationsProcesses modeling can be a challenge for inexperienced designers as they always try to solve a problem from the start, without worrying about the IQ dimensions in process models. Fragments here presented can be (re)used to guide these designers in processes modeling with more IQ.Originality/valueProcess modeling approaches provide expressive techniques but do not guarantee IQ in the models. However, these approaches present process fragments that can be easily used to contemplate IQ in process models. In this context, process fragments reuse stands out as an innovative solution to mitigate the shortcomings of process models related to IQ.

Belt Buckles and Burials in Southwestern Gaul

Objects recovered through mortuary archaeology are often incomplete, and yet they are presented as whole. In particular, items of personal adornment appear in illustrations or photographs either in a restored form or with outlines indicating what would or should have completed the items. Fragmentation, as such, is explained away as the result of degradative processes or of grave robbing. In the case of the ornate belt buckles of fifth- to seventh-century southern Gaul, the relative frequency of apparently intentionally broken objects invites further investigation. As part of the memorialization process, fragments of belt sets may have at once drawn a line between the deceased and those responsible for their burial, as well as serving as public proclamations of familial alliances that surviving kin claimed through the dead. Focusing on fragmentation as an intentional act likewise opens new possibilities for understanding the means by which objects of personal adornment moved across regions. While objects did not move without the intervention of people, the presence of incomplete belt sets in southern Gallic graves implies that belt sets circulated as a means of forming networks of allegiance.