Modelling of publishing processing with UML - CiteSeerX

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Graphic Arts in Finland 3 1 (200 2) 3Further research should be done in designing more des ign patterns for the essential businessprocesses in different area of business, because ready- made design patterns make the first step tobusiness modelling easier.INTRODUCTIONThe techniques and processes of information and media technology have undergon big changesduring the past ten years. The break - through of Internet brought possibilities like disseminatingdigital papers and hypertext documents around the world. Many traditional media houses haveexpanded their activities to Internet. For a long time the contents to different media have beenproduced separately, even in separate organisations within a media house. In the 21st centurycross- media publishing has arisen and one and the same unit may produce content to differentmedia. Cross- media publishing brings along more complicated processes than in the pastandseveral new elements, like real- time publishing. Therefore designing and managing processes isboth economically and functionally much more challenging and important than before.The go al of the research was to encourage the companies within the areas of media and publishingtechnology to use business process modelling while designing their processes. The diagramsproduced in this project are available via Internet and they are free to be reused and modified.Therefore they can help companies starting to model. Modelling the present state of ownprocesses with the help of the example diagrams, teaches also UML (Unified ModellingLanguage) and its use in business process modelling. Different modelling methods and tools wereconsidered in projects carried out in the Laboratory of Media Technology at the HelsinkiUniversity of Technology and finally UML was qualified as modelling method for this project.This article goes through the idea of improving business processes and the basics of UML inbusiness process modelling. On this basis, the PUP example process is introduced and the conceptof the news object is examined. The full report can be reached in Finnish via URLhttp://www.media.hut. fi/GTTS/Suomi/dt&raportit/PUP/www_raportti.htm.TECHNICAL BACKGROUNDImproving Business ProcessesIt is often very useful to model a business process while trying to make improvements. Modellinggives a good overall picture about the process as a whole and its different phases. A thoroughunderstanding of the current processes helps creation of a vision about more productive and costeffectiveprocesses and find the steps to reach them.Business Process Re- engineering (BPR) is an effort to improve the productivity by creating betterbusiness processes. BPR proceeds often through the following five steps /12/:1 . Learn to understand the existing processes,2 . Model the processes,3 . Search the ways to improve the processes,4 . Create the future mo del (a model about the better future) and5 . Find the steps to achieve the better future.1 1
Graphic Arts in Finland 3 1 (200 2) 3Business Process Modelling MethodsThere are many different modelling methods and tools for business process modelling. Of thesethe Unified Modeling Language (UML) is one of the most promising. UML is an object- orientedmodelling language standardised by the Object Management Group (OMG) in 1997 /10/.Different companies have provided a huge amount of UML supporting tools, because UML is atotally independent stan dard. UML was originally designed for system and software development/5/ and was later extended toward different areas of modelling, including business processmodelling /8/.By way of examples, UML has been used to modelling traffic systems. Because the complexity ofthe problems is arising Urban Traffic Systems designers are forced to use modelling approaches inorder to manage the design their systems, and to define and implement traffic managementstrategies. In this use UML has turned to be a very useful tool /1/. Second, UML has been used inthe insurance sector in the transformation to a process oriented organization. Based onreengineered business processes, a refocusing of the information system infrastructure was sought.UML and PROMET Business Process Re- engineering were used together. The conclusion wasthat the combination of UML and PROMET BPR produced the best results /2/.To be fair to the other modelling methods, IDEF0 has been used for publishing processesmodelling. First, In Helsin ki University of Technology had a project called Information Flow inNewsroom Processes. The object of the study was to model the newsroom process chain in a waywhich would make it possible to assess development needs from a technical viewpoint. As ac o n clusion, The IDEF0 model was found to offer sufficient features for describing the newsroomwork flow. /9/TOOLSUnified Modeling LanguageThe notation of UML is clear and easy to learn. Therefore UML diagrams can be understoodwithout big efforts of study. The generally applicable UML diagrams fit well to many purposes.UML suites particularly to business process modelling, because UML supports well visualizationof actions and activities. The processes can be divided in sub- processes and the important actionsor parts can be modelled in more detail. Additionally UML can present synchronisation andparallelism of actions and both human and IT - roles in collaboration. And object orientation incommon allows the models to be comprehensive, understandable, ch angeable, adaptable andreusable. /4/Different approaches to a process can be presented with nine different diagrams types of UML. Inbusiness process modelling the best applicable diagrams are Use Case, Activity and Classdiagrams, but also State, Sequence and Collaboration diagrams are very useful. /8/A Use Case diagram describes the actors, roles and activities. It has a simple and effectivenotation. It is especially applicable in describing process goals. A Class diagram presents insteadthe static structures and associations. A Class diagram is very versatile and it can also describevery complicated structures. It is good when used in forming entities and describing theirrelations.1 2
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