Multi-channel provisioning of public services - Department of ...

Business modelling and process support
the perspectives of business processes, actors, and resources. An extended treatment of
the design artefact would however involve considering other perspectives as well.
Composing a model of the enterprise based on different perspectives might be
problematic as the perspective of the model explicitly promotes certain concepts, while
other concepts are caught between model presentations. A possible consequence is that
some aspects of the modelled environment are weakly reflected in the model and
possibly also in the implemented systems (Opdahl and Sindre, 1997). Based on the
modelling approach, selected aspects of work can be emphasised, while others are
weakly represented or omitted. New perspectives and modelling notations have
however been established in order to address emerging concerns both in the real and
modelled world.
Conceptual models, including enterprise process and goal models, may be usefully be
utilised in the following areas (Krogstie, 2008):
1. Human sense-making and communication: The main purpose of modelling is to
make sense of aspects of an enterprise and to communicate with other
people.
2. Computer-assisted analysis: The main purpose of modelling is to gain
knowledge about the enterprise through simulation or deduction.
3. Model deployment and activation: The main purpose of modelling is to integrate
the model in an information system and thereby have the model actively take
part in the work performed by the organisation.
4. The model is a basis and provides the context for a traditional system
development project, without being implemented directly.
5. Business Process Management in the meaning of maintaining a corporate
memory, e.g. as part of the quality system of the enterprise.
The main use of conceptual models in the proposed design artefact is related to model
deployment and activation, where the model is an integrated part of the information
system. A model is active if it influences the reality it reflects and if changes to the
representation also change the way some actors perceive reality. Model activation is the
process by which a model affects reality. Activation involves actors by interpreting the
model and adjusting their behaviour to it. The process can be automated, where a
software component executes the model; manual, where the model guides the actions of
human actor; or interactive, where prescribed aspects of the model are automatically
interpreted and ambiguous parts are left for the user to resolve, with tool support. Fully
automated activation implies that the model must be formal and complete, while manual
and interactive activation can also handle informal or emergent process descriptions. A
model is defined as interactive if it is interactively activated (Jørgensen, 2004).
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