Collaborative workflow assistant for organizational effectiveness

ABSTRACT

Knowledge intensive process vary widely due to the variation in the specifics of the incoming request and uncertainty in handling and processing that request. Traditional management systems with pre-defined workflows are less effective for enabling these kinds of organizational workflows. Consequently, less structured tools for ad-hoc collaboration, such as Email or activity management systems [8, 16] are used instead because of the flexibility they permit at execution time. However, these ad-hoc collaborative tools are not as capable of capturing best practice knowledge in a manner that is suitable for reuse in similar contexts and future executions of the workflow. We propose to mine knowledge-intensive workflow executions in order to capture and codify best practice knowledge that can be reused to assist and enhance decision making during future executions.

We present a model of a dynamic system and a method for knowledge-intensive workflow enactment that captures ad-hoc applications of tacit knowledge as the work is carried out. Our framework is illustrated using a critical and commonly occurring process in industry called the Architecture Life-Cycle (ALC) management process. This process reviews technological changes made to the installed Information Technology (IT) architectures to meet the evolving requirements of the business. We illustrate how our framework allows participants to locally enhance the ALC, by enabling each individual to perform their work in the best way and recording their intentions explicitly using framework mechanisms that relate activities, work products, transitions, and constraints. We illustrate the axioms that filter out best practices that have been observed during executions and feed them back to the collaborators to guide and improve future executions.

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INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  H. Information Systems
  H.5 INFORMATION INTERFACES AND PRESENTATION (I.7)
      H.5.3 Group and Organization Interfaces

General Terms:
Human Factors, Management

Keywords:
CSCW, activity management, collaboration, process management, workflow