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Information Systems

Information Systems 37 (2012) 77–79

0306-43

doi:10.1

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/infosys

Editorial

Management and engineering of process-aware informationsystems: Introduction to the special issue

1. Introduction

In this editorial letter, we provide the readers ofInformation Systems with a birds-eye introduction toprocess-aware information systems (PAIS)—a sub-field ofInformation Systems that has drawn growing attention inthe past two decades, both as an engineering and as amanagement discipline. Against this backdrop, we brieflydiscuss how the papers included in this special issuecontribute to extending the body of knowledge in this field.

2. Process-aware information systems and associatedresearch challenges

Process-aware information systems are at the heart ofan ongoing trend that has seen the attention of informa-tion systems engineers and managers shift from data andobjects to the processes that the information system –and the organizational environment in which itoperates—is intended to support, enable or enact [1]. Thistrend has resulted in a myriad of approaches to supportthe analysis, design, implementation, execution andmaintenance of information systems, ranging from thosesupported by groupware [2] to those supported by work-flow management systems [3] and more recently businessprocess management systems [4]. We subsume suchdifferent information systems with a process focus underthe umbrella of process-aware information systems(PAIS). A PAIS is a work system that supports the deliveryof products and/or services to customers by processinginformation on the basis of explicit process models [5].

Process awareness has emerged as a guiding principlenot only in the design and analysis of information sys-tems, but also as a management discipline in its ownright. Indeed, the improvement of business processes is aperennial top priority of chief information executives [6].When seeking to re-design business processes to improveoperational efficiency, increase compliance or foster busi-ness innovation, managers increasingly turn to BusinessProcess Management (BPM) [7]—a body of principles andmethods that support the modelling, analysis, design and

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implementation of PAIS. The appeal of BPM lies in itspromise to create sustainable high-performing processesthat demonstrate strategic strengths such as the ability torespond better to rapid change or to standardize opera-tional best practices across business units or locations.

PAIS are complex socio-technical systems in whichmanagerial and organizational aspects are often entangledwith system analysis, design and implementation aspects.An integrated understanding of these complementaryaspects is essential to reap the potential benefits of PAIS.However, management and engineering aspects of PAIShave to date mostly been studied separately. On the onehand, the information systems engineering community hasconcentrated on PAIS analysis, design and implementation,using for example case handling systems [8], workflowtechnology [9], business process management systems [4]or service-oriented architectures [10]. On the other hand,the information systems management community hasfocused on the impact of information systems technologyto support process-oriented organizations [11], the usage ofprocess-aware technology [12], process modelling methods[13,14] and process redesign practices [15], or the manage-ment of cultural and organizational change to enableprocess improvement [16]. Overall, these research streamshave mostly been isolated from one another so far. In part,this is due to differences in research cultures. Whileresearch into PAIS engineering often adopts methods fallingunder the umbrella of Design Science – seeking to constructtechnology artefacts that respond to given problems –research into management and social aspects of PAIS gen-erally relies on empirical research methods such as surveys,interviews and structured case studies—in the tradition ofthe behavioural sciences. As a result, two distinct researchsilos have emerged and only a relatively small share ofstudies fully embrace the holistic and boundary-spanningnature of PAIS as socio-technical systems.

With this special issue, we aimed to provide a forum tobridge the viewpoints of the information systems engi-neering community and the information systems manage-ment community, as it pertains to PAIS. The special issueexplicitly advocated multi-disciplinary approaches that

Editorial / Information Systems 37 (2012) 77–7978

expand and integrate isolated research efforts in engineer-ing and management of PAIS, or that bridge design-oriented with behavioural IS research efforts. We werehoping to foster increased communication between theresearch camps, to instil multi-disciplinary perspective inresearch on process-aware information systems, and – lastbut not least – also to provide a sample of state-of-the-artquality research in this relevant field of research.

3. Contents of the special issue

In response to the call for papers for this special issue,overall fourteen submissions were solicited. After threerounds of rigorous peer review and editorial review, weselected three papers for inclusion in the special issue.Each paper was reviewed by two expert reviewers plusthe three guest editors. The acceptance rate speaks bothfor the high standards of rigour and relevance that weapplied to the research submitted for inclusion, and thehigh standards of research achieved by the three articlesaccepted. We believe that the articles selected serve as anexcellent demonstration how to combine design-orientedand empirical studies in one successful research design.

The first paper, ‘‘Perceived Consistency between Pro-cess Models’’, by Matthias Weidlich and Jan Mendling,takes a look at consistency notions as they apply to themodelling of process-aware information systems. Processmodel consistency is an important criterion to preventcontradictions between multiple variants of the samemodel, which is of importance especially in phases ofprocess-aware information systems analysis and designwhere multiple stakeholder parties and modelling pur-poses are involved. To investigate process model consis-tency, the authors discuss different formal notions ofbehavioural consistency, introduce the new formal con-cept of consistency based on behavioural profiles, andpresent an experimental evaluation to examine the cor-respondence between formal and perceived consistencyof process models based on a study with 69 processanalysts. Thereby, the paper clearly demonstrates howresearch on engineering aspects of PAIS (the developmentof new formal consistency notions) can be complementedmeaningfully with a rigorous evaluation from a manage-rial and behavioural perspective (how process analystsperceive pairs of process models).

In the second paper, ‘‘Business Process Analysis inHealthcare Environments: a Methodology based on Pro-cess Mining’’, Alvaro Rebuge and Diogo R. Ferreira presentan extension to process mining technology to supportspecifically the complex and ad-hoc nature of clinicalworkflows. They define a methodology for the applicationof process mining techniques that leads to the identifica-tion of regular behaviour, process variants, and excep-tional medical cases, and develop a tool prototype thatimplements the methodology. They then proceed to applytheir methodology and the associated tool in a case studyconducted at a hospital emergency service. Through theirwork, the contribute to PAIS by designing an extendedprocess mining methodology and tool, and by studyingempirically how this PAIS technology can be applied inpractice to provide insights into the flow of healthcare

processes, their performance, and their adherence toinstitutional guidelines. The learning provided therebyassist in the management of PAIS technology.

Finally, the third paper accepted to our special issue,‘‘Trace Alignment in Process Mining: Opportunities forProcess Diagnostics’’ by Jagadeesh Chandra Bose RanthamPrabhakara and Wil M. P. van der Aalst, complementsthe second paper, by delving deeper into the problem ofidentifying ‘‘regular behaviour’’ in process execution logs.The paper applies a technique that is typically used forDNA analysis in the field of bioinformatics, namelysequence alignment. The basic idea put forward by thepaper is that process execution traces can be seen as DNAsequences, with ‘‘event types’’ (e.g. task occurrences)taking the place of DNA-bases. Sequence alignment(called ‘‘trace alignment’’ in this paper) consists of adding‘‘gaps‘‘ inside a sequence, so that when put below (or nextto) one or multiple other sequences, the common parts ofthe sequences are clearly identifiable. One a collection ofexecution traces have been aligned, analysts can moreeasily identify ‘‘regular behaviours’’, which correspond tofrequently repeated segments in the aligned traces. Theusefulness of the proposed technique is validated on thebasis of two sample logs from different applicationdomains, which again corresponds to the careful andcritical evaluation of managerial aspects surrounding apiece of PAIS technology.

4. Conclusions

To sum up, we believe this collection of papers notonly makes an interesting read but is also representativeof the current global research efforts in the field ofprocess-aware information systems. The papers show thatthere is a lot to be gained by approaching managementand engineering aspects of PAIS from a unified viewpoint.

We hope these papers will serve as inspiration forother researchers to contribute to building an innovativeand empirically-grounded body of knowledge in the fieldof PAIS that delivers insights to organizations that strivefor business innovation, operational excellence and agi-lity, and we hope that these papers also send a positivesignal to the academic community about the value ofholistic and multi-method research on PAIS. We trust youwill enjoy reading this special issue.

References

[1] W.M.P. van der Aalst, et al., Business process management: wherebusiness processes and web services meet, Data & KnowledgeEngineering 61 (1) (2007) 1–5.

[2] A.R. Dennis, G. Hayes, R.M. Daniels, Business process modelingwith group support systems, Journal of Management InformationSystems 15 (4) (1999) 115–142.

[3] A.H.M. ter Hofstede, et al., Modern Business Process Automation:YAWL and its Support Environment, Springer, New York, NY, 2010.

[4] P. Dadam, et al., Von ADEPT zur AristaFlow BPM Suite—Eine Visionwird Realitat: ‘‘Correctness by Construction’’ und flexible, robusteAusfuhrung von Unternehmensprozessen, EMISA Forum 29 (1)(2009) 9–28.

[5] M. Dumas, W.M.P. van der Aalst, A.H.M. ter Hofstede (Eds.), ProcessAware Information Systems: Bridging People and Software ThroughProcess Technology, John Wiley & Sons, Hoboken, New Jersey, 2005.

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[6] Gartner Group, Leading in Times of Transition: The 2010 CIOAgenda, Gartner, Inc., Stamford, Connecticut, 2010.

[7] H. Smith, P. Fingar, Business Process Management—The ThirdWave, Meghan-Kiffer Press, Tampa, Florida, 2003 (311 pp.).

[8] W.M.P. van der Aalst, M. Weske, Case handling: a new paradigm forbusiness process support, Data & Knowledge Engineering 53 (2)

(2005) 129–162.[9] H.A. Reijers, S. Limam, W.M.P. van der Aalst, Product-based work-

flow design, Journal of Management Information Systems 20 (1)(2003) 229–262.

[10] T. Erl, Service-Oriented Architecture: Concepts, Technology, andDesign, Prentice-Hall, Upple Saddle Revier, New Jersey, 2005.

[11] B. Weber, B. Mutschler, M. Reichert, Investigating the effect of usingBPM technology: results from a controlled experiment, Science ofComputer Programming 75 (5) (2010) 292–310.

[12] M. Adams, A.H.M. ter Hofstede, M. La Rosa, Open source softwarefor workflow management: the case of YAWL, IEEE Software 28 (3)

(2011) 16–19.[13] J. Recker, Continued use of process modeling grammars: the impact

of individual difference factors, European Journal of InformationSystems 19 (1) (2010) 76–92.

[14] J. Recker, et al., Do ontological deficiencies in modeling grammarsmatter? MIS Quarterly 35 (1) (2011) 57–79.

[15] H.A. Reijers, S.L. Mansar, Best practices in business process rede-

sign: an overview and qualitative evaluation of successful redesignheuristics, Omega 33 (4) (2005) 283–306.

[16] J. vom Brocke, T. Sinnl, Culture in business process management: aliterature review, Business Process Management Journal 17 (2)(2011) 357–378.

Marlon Dumas n

University of Tartu, Estonia

E-mail address: marlon.dumas@ut.ee

Jan ReckerQueensland University of Technology, Australia

E-mail address: j.recker@qut.edu.au

Mathias WeskeHasso Plattner Institute, University of Potsdam, Germany

E-mail address: mathias.weske@hpi.uni-potsdam.de

Available online 19 September 2011

n Corresponding author.