Paper: Exploring collaborative modeling of business processes on large interactive touch display walls

Workshop paper and related ITS poster has been uploaded to eprints.  Will be presented on the 15th Nov. at ITS 2015 and related CMIS workshop.  Is part of a collaboration with University of Bochum, supported by IFE  @ QUT.

Ross

Video: Large Scale Multi-touch Process Modelling @ QUT

Link to a video showing the full feature set of our large scale process modeller.  Video was made for a workshop paper at ITS 2015, to appear soon on this blog.

Great work by the team: Erik, Fortune, Artem, Alex and Matt!

Ross

Video: Gesture-based Process Modelling on QUT Cube

Fortune Truong has been at it again, developing new features for our prototype gesture-based modelling tool for the QUT Cube.  I particularly like the undo and redo gestures at 1:10 in the video.

Thanks to Information Systems School and the Institute of Future Environments at QUT for the support.

Well done Fortune!

Ross

Paper Review: How Social Distance of Process Designers Affects the Process of Process Modeling

#Title#

How Social Distance of Process Designers Affects the Process of Process Modeling:

Insights From a Controlled Experiment

#Authors#

Jens Kolb, Michael Zimoch, Barbara Weber, Manfred Reichert

#Venue#

In: 29th Symposium On Applied Computing (SAC 2014), Enterprise Engineering Track, 24-28 March, 2014, Gyeongju, South Korea.

#DOI#

http://dbis.eprints.uni-ulm.de/1011/

#Abstract#

The increasing adoption of process-aware information systems (PAISs) by enterprises has resulted in large process model collections. Usually, process models are created either by in-house domain experts or external consultants. Thereby, high model quality is crucial, i.e., process mod- els should be syntactically correct and sound, and also reflect the real business processes properly. While numerous guidelines exist for creating correct and sound process mod- els, there is only little work dealing with cognitive aspects affecting process modeling. This paper addresses this gap and presents a controlled experiment using construal level theory. We investigate the influence the social distance of a process designer to the modeled domain has on the creation of process models. In particular, we are able to show significant differences between high and low social distance in respect to model quality and granularity. The results may help enterprises to compose adequate teams for creating or optimizing business process models.

#Comments#

Dsiclaimer!!! I do work with these people, and have a virtual world now with Jens and Michael, as a further extension to this work.  However, I am reviewing this paper as it has relevance to the situated cognition aspects that I am investigating, so I thought I would mull over it a little.

So their paper talks about a psychological distance concept, derived from Construal Level Theory (Todorov) which is a social psychology construct.  While it makes sense, I wonder whether this distance is related to how grounded, embodied or situated the memory of the tasks has become, I think social distance is linked to straight forward memory of sequences in some way.

Is the social distance related or synonymous with theories of situated cognition and memory with task sequences.  The context of their work is within the view-oriented visuals generated by their proView project implementation.  However, that is for typical process models, not 3D visuals of a work place.

Does social distance creates abstraction? Or does it simply provide different memories of acting out the process, or, different simulations of that process from our own internal perspectives?!?!?

They do note spatial issues, but have not addressed this in their work.

Interestingly, their thoughts give support to my ideas of using virtual worlds to engage people at the level of operationalisation in a process.  A first hypothesis could be: does the use of the virtual world undermine some of the social distance by the act of roleplaying the process in front of the analyst doing the modelling?!?

From their analysis: "In summary, hypotheses H1,1 and H1,3 can be accepted. In turn, hypothesis H1,4 is only partially supported and thus it cannot be accepted. Further, hypothesis H1,2 must be rejected. From this, we can conclude that low social distance has a positive impact on the granularity (H1,1) and semantic quality (H1,3) of resulting process models. We may also assume that low social distance has a positive impact on the perceived quality (H1,4); however, since it is partially supported, it cannot be generalized. Regarding syntactic quality (H1,2), no statistically significant difference is observed."

So the closer the social distance, the better are the semantic and granular aspects of the model.  I find interesting the observation that the only change is the modelling brief at the start having a stranger vs intimate friend in the lunch acquisition process.  It is intriguing that the social distance has an effect on the articulation of a process, and at a significant level on first analysis.  Does, maybe, this even come down to motivation?!?  Could it be that the participants were primed by the reference to friend to be more engaged in the task.  I note no controls on this aspect in the paper, but maybe I missed some subtlety in my brief reading.

Also, could the emotional attachment priming have affected the acquisition of memories, memories that can be read by the person in their modelling task.  So, is it social distance, or attachment levels that are measured here?  Maybe some controls around the identity of the person they are lunching with are needed.  Hey, if I imagined my lovely partner Ulrike, then I can imagine it affecting my motivation levels in some way. :-)

Also, the chances are that they have a memory of lunching with friends, and not with foreign strangers, thus the particpants are reading straight from memory.

My final thoughts are that there may be more experimentation needed to tease out the interactions of social distance vs actual memories vs motivation levels.

However, an intriguing paper, with lots of future analysis possibilities relevant to my work.

#ImportantRefs#

Construal Theory - Todorov, A., Goren, A., Trope, Y.: Probability as a Psychological Distance: Construal and Preferences. J Experimental Social Psychology 43 (2007) 473–482

Semiotic Theory and Conceptual Models - Lindland, O.I., Sindre, G., Solvberg, A.: Understanding Quality in Conceptual Modeling. IEEE Software 11 (1994) 42–49

Experimental Design - Wohlin, C., Runeson, P., Ho ̈st, M., Ohlsson, M.C., Regnell, B., Wesslen, A.: Experimentation in Software Engineering - An Introduction. Kluwer (2000)

Video: Virtual World as a Process Modelling Cultural Probe

This is a video of a virtual world we have developed for eliciting expert information from stakeholders. The intention is that the virtual world prompts the user to remember more about their work processes. Our example shows a sparse visualisation of the University of Vienna Department of Computer Science.  This part of a collaboration with Simone Kriglstein, Sonja Kabicher-Fuchs and Stefanie Rinderle-Ma at the University of Vienna.

The video can be found here.

Ross

Paper: Storyboard augmentation of process model grammars for stakeholder communication

Just had a paper accepted for IVAPP 2014, "Storyboard augmentation of process model grammars for stakeholder communication," coauthored with my colleague Simone Kriglstein from the University of Vienna.  Paper was the product of an Honours (First Class) project by Kathleen Nardella at QUT.  Paper can be found here.

Abstract - Process models are often used to visualize and communicate workflows to involved stakeholders. Unfortunately, process modeling notations can be complex and need specific knowledge to be understood. Storyboards, as a visual language to illustrate workflows as sequences of images, provide natural visualization features that allow for better communication, to provide insight to people from non-process modelling expert domains. This paper proposes a visualization approach using a 3D virtual world environment to visualize storyboards for business process models. A prototype was built to present its applicability via generating output with examples of five major process model patterns and two non-trivial use cases. Illustrative results for the approach show the promise of using a 3D virtual world to visualize complex process models in an unambiguous and intuitive manner.

Ross

Scholarship: (Honours) Virtual Worlds & S-BPM funded by Metasonic

Honours Scholarship available

An Honours Scholarship specific to a project that looks at the use of virtual worlds and related 3D visualisations with Subject-oriented Business Process Management (S-BPM) paradigm is now available, to commence from Jan 2014. The scholarship will provide a living allowance of $13,000.00 per annum. You will get the chance to work with local and international experts and will be exposed to advanced R&D training and development, that can support both an academic or commercial research oriented career path.

Requirements to apply:

1. Completed a Bachelor of IT, Bachelor of Games and Interactive Entertainment, or equivalent, with GPA of at least 5 (on a 7 point scale);

2. High grades of 6 and above in relevant QUT games development units, such as, INB381, INB382, INB383, Interaction Design Units or equivalent from another institution.

Selection Criteria:

1. A genuine interest and aptitude for research;

2. Ability to work as a team and independently;

3. Excellent written and oral communication skills;

4. Sound understanding, as indicated by example projects, of the design and implementation of 3D virtual worlds and related game engine development;

5. Detailed understanding and interest in Interaction Design;

6. Time and project management.

If interested, please email your CV and a statement addressing the selection criteria to Ross Brown (r.brown@qut.edu.au). Applications close on Oct 25^th 2013.

Paper: The BPMVE Wunderkammer

Have just had a BPTrends column, "The BPMVE Wunderkammer,"  published with my colleague, Prof. Jan Recker.  QUT ePrint is available here.  Thanks for the opportunity Jan!

Ross

Video: 3D Process Visualisation Configurations

Have just uploaded to Youtube a video of 3D Process Visualisation Configurations.

Video is available here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m6Losma61-U.  

Related paper will be coming soon.

Ross

Video: Collaborative BPMN Process Modeller

Have uploaded to Youtube a video of our new 3D collaborative BPMN modelling environment.

Video is available here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hYMgI6R4iHs.  

Related research paper is here: http://eprints.qut.edu.au/54174/.

Ross

Paper: Improving Remote Collaborative Process Modelling using Embodiment in 3D Virtual Environments

Our paper "Improving Remote Collaborative Process Modelling using Embodiment in 3D Virtual Environments," by Erik Poppe, Ross Brown, Jan Recker and Daniel Johnson, has been accepted at APCCM 2013.

Abstract: Identifying, modelling and documenting business processes usually  require the collaboration of many stakeholders that may be spread across companies in inter-organizational settings.  While modern process modelling  technologies are beginning to provide a number of features  to support remote, they lack support for visual cues used in co-located collaboration. In this paper,  we  examine the importance of visual cues for collaboration  tasks in collaborative process modelling.   Based on this analysis,  we  present a prototype 3D virtual world process modelling tool that supports a number of visual cues to facilitate remote collaborative process model creation and validation.  We then report on a preliminary analysis of the technology. In conclusion, we proceed to describe the future direction of our research with regards to the theoretical contributions expected from the evaluation of the tool.

Well done Erik!

Ross

Paper: A Prototype Augmented Reality Collaborative Process Modelling Tool

We have had a BPM 2011 Demo paper accepted describing our new augmented reality process modelling prototype. A copy of the paper is available here. A video of the prototype is available here.

This work is the product of an Honours project by my new PhD student Erik Poppe. He will be continuing this work in his PhD project, supported by a scholarship from the Smart Services CRC.

Well done Erik!

Abstract at end of post.

Ross

Abstract.

Identifying, modelling and documenting business processes usually requires the collaboration of many stakeholders that may be spread across companies in inter-organizational business settings. While there are many process modelling tools available, the support they provide for remote collaboration is still limited. This demonstration showcases a novel prototype application that implements collaborative virtual environment and augmented reality technologies to improve remote collaborative process modelling, with an aim to assisting common collaboration tasks by providing an increased sense of immersion in an intuitive shared work and task space. Our tool is easily deployed using open source software, and commodity hardware, and is expected to assist with saving money on travel costs for large scale process modelling projects covering national and international centres within an enterprise.

Video: Augmented Reality Process Modelling Tool

In this video we show a prototype BPMN process modelling tool which uses Augmented Reality techniques to increase the sense of immersion.

The avatar represents a remotely logged in user, and facilitates greater insight into the editing actions of the collaborator than present 2D web-based approaches in collaborative process modelling.

We modified the Second Life client to integrate the ARToolkit in order to support pattern-based AR.

Open Source version of this project will be available soon.

Ross

Paper: AMCIS 2010 Collaborative business process modeling using 3D virtual environments

I have just uploaded our new paper accepted for AMCIS 2010 to the QUT Eprints Site. This paper details a collaborative BPMN modeling environment that my Masters student Stephen West has built for Open Simulator and Second Life. The main outcome is the creation of a useful 3D space to collaborate around a process model. A video of the work is posted here.

Jan Recker will be presenting the paper at AMCIS 2010. This work is part of our ongoing projects in the area of collaborative process modelling. Contact me if you need a copy of the paper before AMCIS.

Well done Stephen.

Ross

Article: BPMVE Airport Process Video on TV!

Just had a look on the Australian ABC site for Stateline QLD, and have found my Airport Processes Video has been played as part of a news item on the Airports of the Future QUT research project. The original video is shown here at Youtube.

Ross

Link: Video of Mobile Phone DLP Projector

Samsung have a new mobile projector using Texas Instruments Pico Projector technology.

One of my desires is to see ad-hoc environments developed using the latest technology, allowing process modelling spaces to be portable and spontaneous in nature. This sort of display technology will go a long way to creating such spaces, especially as the mobile projector can be mounted in atypical ways to form interesting projection environments, and can then be placed in the pocket and taken home. This displays can be combined with touch table solutions and other surfaces to create productive ad-hoc digital interaction environments for collaborative process modelling. Such ideas have been explored by the Sixth Sense project at (where else but) MIT. Would be good to see this happen with Process Modelling, especially for client/analyst communication.

A word of caution here though. Let's hope we don't take it too far and do the Iron Man 2 thing and turn every surface (and volume) into a display. Ugh! :-|

Ross

Article: When is a virtual world not a virtual world? When it is a document

I have just had an article published on the Technology Management Portal about using Virtual Worlds as documents, not just as cloud servers. Not really an academic piece, just me thinking out loud about the business usage of Virtual Worlds.

Ross

Idea: Games that Change the World

Slightly left field, but thought provoking TED talk here by Jane McGonigal about using games to solve world problems. Her thesis is that games teach people heroic behaviour, and excellent team work skills.

She also points out the great amount of time people spend in these environments, and how they are an intensely motivating medium, due to the sense of being a better person in game, than outside. She also briefly details her peak oil simulation game, which intends to produce potential solutions to peak oil problems via gameplay.

I think her ideas have much merit. For the first time, we can create synthetic environments with the ability to model complex scenarios as gameplay, and thus apply the computational power of humans to major world problems, to explore solutions that are not obvious unless many skills are brought together, all with the pressure and productivity of competition that gameplay produces.

I think this approach could be applied to business process problems as well. Ironically, a lot of the worlds problems are related to business, especially in the area of resource usage and its links to the economy. Maybe an unexpected outcome of educating people about business processes via games, would be their improvement via the same gameplay. Food for thought.

Ross

Airport Processes Video

This movie is a demonstration of the use of 3D Virtual Environments to visualise 3D BPMN Process Models, and in particular, to highlight any issues with the process model that are spatial in nature. The example is of check in processes at the Brisbane Airport.

This work is part of a paper accepted for the Asia-Pacific Conference on Conceptual Modelling (APCCM 2010) to be held in Brisbane -http://2010.apccm.org/

Ross

BPMVE YouTube Channel

You might want to look at the BPMVE YouTube channel, where I post videos of our demonstration software.

A widget of this channel is also situated on the right of this blog.

Ross