Enterprise Systems, Control and Drift

Enterprise Systems are widespread in current organizations and seen as integrating organizational procedures across functional divisions. An Enterprise System, once installed, seems to enable or constrain certain actions by users, which have an impact on organizational operations. Those actions may result in increased organizational control, or may lead to organizational drift. The processes that give rise to such outcomes are investigated in this chapter, which is based on a field study of five companies. By drawing on the theoretical concepts of human and machine agencies, as well as the embedding and disembedding of information in the system, this chapter argues that control and drift arising from the use of an Enterprise System are outcomes of the processes of embedding and disembedding human actions, which are afforded (enabled or constrained) by the Enterprise System.

Application of Software Metrics in EPR Projects

Business information system is an area of the greatest significance in any business enterprise today. Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) projects are a growing segment of this vital area. Software engineering metrics are units of measurement used to characterize the software engineering products and processes. The research about the software process has acquired great importance in the last few years due to the growing interest of software companies in the improvement of their quality. Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) projects are very complex products, and this fact is directly linked to their development and maintenance. One of the major reasons found in the literature for the failure of ERP projects is the poor management of software processes. In this chapter, the authors propose a Software Metrics Plan (SMP) containing different software metrics to manage software processes during ERP implementation. Two hypotheses have been formulated and tested using statistical techniques to validate the SMP. The statistical analysis of the collected data from an ERP project supports the two hypotheses, leading to the conclusion that the software metrics are momentous in ERP projects.

Specifying Software Models with Organizational Styles

Organizational Modeling is concerned with analyzing and understanding the organizational context within which a software system will eventually function. This chapter proposes organizational patterns motivated by organizational theories intended to facilitate the construction of organizational models. These patterns are defined from real world organizational settings, modeled in i* and formalized using the Formal Tropos language. Additionally, the chapter evaluates the proposed patterns using desirable qualities such as coordinability and predictability. The research is conducted in the context of Tropos, a comprehensive software system development methodology.

Challenges and Solutions for Complex Business Process Management

A business process displays complexity as a result of multiple interactions of its internal components and interaction between the process and its environment. To manage complexity and foster flexibility of business process management (BPM), we present the DCAR architecture for developing complex BPM systems, which includes decomposition of complex processes (D); coordination of interactive activities (C); awareness of dynamic environments (A); and resource selection and coordination (R). On the other hand, computing technologies, such as object-oriented programming, component-based development, agent-oriented computing, and service-oriented architecture have been applied in modeling and developing complex systems. However, there is considerable ambiguity involved in differentiating between these overlapping technologies and their use in developing BPM systems. No explicit linkage has been established between the requirement of complex BPM and the supporting technologies. In this study, we use the DCAR architecture as the foundation to identify the BPM requirements for employing technologies in developing BPM systems. Based on an examination of the both sides (BPM requirements and supporting technologies), we present a clear picture of business process complexity with a systemic approach for developing complex BPM systems by using appropriate computing technologies.

Web Services as XML Data Sources in Enterprise Information Integration

More and more systems provide data through web service interfaces and these data have to be integrated with the legacy relational databases of the enterprise. The integration is usually done with enterprise information integration systems which provide a uniform query language to all information sources, therefore the XML data sources of Web services having a procedural access interface have to be matched with relational data sources having a database interface. In this chapter the authors provide a solution to this problem by describing the Web service wrapper component of the SINTAGMA Enterprise Information Integration system. They demonstrate Web services as XML data sources in enterprise information integration by showing how the web service wrapper component integrates XML data of Web services in the application domain of digital libraries.

EIS Systems and Quality Management

This chapter discusses the support of quality management by Enterprise Information Systems. After a brief introduction in ISO9001, one of the principle and widest-spread quality management frameworks, this chapter discusses the design and implementation of a typical QMS and in particular of key performance indicators, indicating the present state of performance in the organization. While analyzing design and implementation issues, requirements on the supporting EIS system will be derived. Finally, the chapter presents an outlook onto future developments, trends and research. This chapter reveals that key performance indicators can be well integrated in EIS systems, using either relational or objectoriented storage technology.

Facilitating Design of Efficient Components by Bridging Gaps between Data Model and Business Process via Analysis of Service Traits of Data

In many large-scale enterprise information system solutions, process design, data modeling and software component design are performed relatively independently by different people using various tools and methodologies. This usually leads to gaps among business process modeling, component design and data modeling. Currently, these functional or non-functional disconnections are fixed manually, which increases the complexity and decrease the efficiency and quality of development. In this chapter, a pattern-based approach is proposed to bridge the gaps with automatically generated data access components. Data access rules and patterns are applied to optimize these data access components. In addition, the authors present the design of a toolkit that automatically applies these patterns to bridge the gaps to ensure reduced development time, and higher solution quality.

Development and Design Methodologies in DWM

Information systems were developed in early 1960s to process orders, billings, inventory controls, payrolls, and accounts payables. Soon information systems research began. Harry Stern started the “Information Systems in Management Science” column in Management Science journal to provide a forum for discussion beyond just research papers (Banker & Kauffman, 2004). Ackoff (1967) led the earliest research on management information systems for decision-making purposes and published it in Management Science. Gorry and Scott Morton (1971) first used the term decision support systems (DSS) in a paper and constructed a framework for improving management information systems. The topics on information systems and DSS research diversifies. One of the major topics has been on how to get systems design right.

Testing Guidelines for Developing Quality EAI Projects

The rapidly changing nature of business environments requires organizations to be more flexible to gain competitive advantages. Organizations are turning into a new generation of software called Enterprise Application Integration (EAI) to fully integrate business processes. It is an activity that integrates and harmonizes an enterprise’s isolated business applications, processes and functions involving real time data. Developing quality EAI projects is quite a big challenge. Even though success of EAI projects depends on so many parameters, ‘testing’ is the most significant phase that can ensure the quality as well as the success of EAI projects. Components integrated without testing in EAI systems may affect the enterprise system as a whole. This chapter focuses on the testing aspects related to EAI applications. Especially the significance of testing for various types of “Integrations” is discussed in detail.

From ERP to Enterprise Service-Oriented Architecture

This chapter provides an overview of past and present development in technical platforms of ERP systems and its use in enterprises. Taking into consideration the two layers of application and technology, we present the classical scenario of an ERP system as a monolithic application block. As the demands of modern enterprise software cannot be met by this concept, the shift to a more flexible architecture like the service-oriented architecture (SOA) is the current status quo of modern companies. Keeping in mind the administrative complexity of such structures, we will discuss the new idea of business Webs. The purpose of our chapter is, on the one hand, to show the historical development of ERP system landscapes and, on the other hand, to show the comparison of the presented concepts with respect to application and technology view.