Business Informatics Research Articles

Discrete mathematics course supported by CAS MATHEMATICA

ABSTRACTIn this paper, we discuss examples of assignments for a course in discrete mathematics for undergraduate students majoring in business informatics. We consider several problems with computer-based solutions and discuss general strategies for using computers in teaching mathematics and its applications. In order to evaluate the effectiveness of our approach, we conducted an anonymous survey. The results of the survey provide evidence that our approach contributes to high outcomes and aligns with the course aims and objectives.

Management of Business Informatics and Performance Management

The proposed conceptual model verifies applicability of traditional Morton’s model in Business Informatics and extend this model for new view that is transformed into Business Informatics Performance Management Model. We are analyzing applicability of Morton’s model in Business Informatics and Business Intelligence and then we are proposing new Business Informatics Performance Management Model. This new structured approach for description of Business Informatics performance measurement and management needs helps organizations with clear statement how they want to implement BIPMS in their environment. We tested our model with Business Intelligence service that is described and defined by our model. It proves that model can provide management of Business Informatics a tool how to describe performance measurement and management in a consistent and structured way.

Professional Mathematical Culture of Business Informatics Specialists and the Process of its Development at the University

Background/Objectives: Professional training in “Business Informatics” (Bachelor degree) as has been realized at Russian universities since 2004. The article reveals the theoretical-methodological principles and specifics of professional mathematical culture formation in the future bachelors of Business Informatics at the universities. It is taking cues from the synergetic practice of modern mathematical methods and computer technologies in their professional activities to solve variative tasks. Methods: During the experimental work the following methods were used: questionnaire surveys, content analysis, testing, pedagogical experiment, mathematical processing of empirical data. Findings: The authors explain the essence, structure, levels of manifestation of Business Informatics specialists’ professional-mathematical culture, analyze the results of the lasting experimental work (2004-2016 in the field of professional and applied (practiceoriented) mathematical training of future Bachelors of Business Informatics (BBI). Applications/Improvements: The authors believe that formed professional-mathematical culture among the University graduates (BBI) is a prerequisite for successful adaptation of young specialists in their future career and a prerequisite for the effectiveness of their professional experience (and it has been confirmed by the deferred control data). Keywords: Business Informatics Specialists, Professional-Mathematical Culture, Competencies, Professional Training at Universities

The Social Dimension of Business Processes: Issues and Research Desiderata

The social dimension of business processes has rarely been investigated. However, it is essential to counteract this deficiency in order to enable a balanced focus on personality, situation and science in “business process-oriented” VET and continuing education. In this paper a subject- and system-oriented understanding of business processes and their social dimension is developed. It emphasizes communication, cooperation and work-based learning, thus transcending limits of traditional conceptualization shaped by management sciences and business informatics. The new (field-specific) understanding is a foundation for empirical analyses and didactical constructions. For this purpose, various conceptual approaches of the field are discussed, such as cooperative learning. Furthermore, recent management approaches for process teams and subject-oriented business process modelling are reflected from an educational point of view. Finally, several research objectives are highlighted and possible avenues for further investigations drafted.

Concept for a new approach to project management in the activities of public servants

Natalia F. Altukhova - Associate Professor, Head of Department of Business Informatics, Financial University under the Government of the Russian FederationAddress: 38, Scherbakovskaya Street, Moscow, 105187, Russian Federation E-mail: nfaltuhova@fa.ruElena V. Vasileva - Professor, Department of Business Informatics. Financial University under the Government of the Russian FederationAddress: 38, Scherbakovskaya Street, Moscow, 105187, Russian Federation E-mail: evvasileva@fa.ruBoris B. Slavin - Scientific Advisor, Faculty of Applied Mathematics and Information Technology, Professor, Department of Business Informatics, Financial University under the Government of the Russian FederationAddress: 38, Scherbakovskaya Street, Moscow, 105187, Russian Federation E-mail: bbslavin@fa.ru This article presents the results of research into the possibility of adapting flexible methods of project management to the organization of activities of public servants of the Russian Federation and recommendations on combined approaches. The objectives of this research: to identify special aspects of project management in the public service and to evaluate the possibilities for adapting flexible methods of project management to the organization of activities of Russian public servants. The activities of the public service are becoming increasingly innovative and intelligent and, as a consequence, less predictable. These days the public authorities are not only customers in relation to third organizations, but they themselves act as the direct executors of projects in the elaboration of development programs and legislative initiatives in the framework of executing orders of the President, Government and the higher state authorities. In these circumstances, management principles of the PMBOK and similar standards, which are strictly formalized and require clear planning of processes, no longer work. When the problems are large-scale, technologies are known, and the resources are defined, classical design techniques work flawlessly. But when any innovative goals are set, there may be high risk of exceeding budget funds and time; therefore in this case it is necessary to consider the feasibility of applying Agile-like technologies. Possibilities for the combination of tough methods (in terms of responsibility and formalization) and flexible methods (in terms of goal-setting and continuity) of project management in the civil service were investigated using analysis of business processes and based on the results of a survey of the public servants participating in the implementation of certain tasks with respect to execution of public functions. It is noted that in contrast to the business-oriented organizations the government authorities are characterized by a significantly reduced motivation to informal leadership and undeveloped self-organization and self-management. This fact imposes restrictions on the processes of implementing approaches of flexible project management in the activities of public servants, but it does not mean it is impossible to formulate and use them. Based on the results of the study we carried out, we determined principles of flexible project management in the civil service, the knowledge of which can be useful both for the public servants and businesses working with government agencies.[1] This article was prepared based on the results of research carried with the support of government funds by the State Order of the University of Finance for the year of 2016 “Analysis of the best international practices of information support to realization of public functions. Development of proposals on improvement of information support to activities of civil public servants”, state registration number AAAA-A16-116070610054-7

Designing modern informatics education for future managers and advanced users according to their knowledge base

The main question we are dealing with is how to teach/educate the future managers – advanced users of business informatics, ICT and information systems. As a very important step in determining the content and method of teaching we consider an evaluation of the knowledge base of students who enter the fi rst year at the Faculty of Economics Technical University of Kosice. In the fi rst seminar in subject called Informatics I students fi ll in questionnaires which are focused on their general knowledge of informatics/computer science and basic terms of IS. In the paper we present evaluation of our questionnaire survey in the period 2003-2014. Conclusions formulated in the paper are directly relevant for teaching realized on the Faculty of Economics, Technical University Kosice. In the process of questionnaire creation we drew from generally valid documents for secondary schools in Slovakia. In the sample of respondents there were mostly graduates from Eastern Slovakia Region therefore this allows us to assume that knowledge base and ICT competences on the other faculties especially in our region with non informatics focus would copy the described trends. We also present our innovative manner of informatics education based on modeling, simulation and on a well known opinion that “no kind of teaching can replace the personal experience”. As a dominant form we use problem-oriented project teaching. Students fi nd themselves in a position of a manager of a virtual company, at project of specifying users’ requirements The paper deals with the experience in teaching, we present recommended structure of the user requirements project and we also discuss the body of knowledge and methods which have been implemented into the subject Informatics II. In the proposed innovative way of teaching we are trying to transform solving problem process into an active process of cognition.

Selected Topics on Managing Complexity and Information Systems Engineering: Editorial Introduction to Issue 8 of CSIMQ

Business process models greatly contribute to analyze and understand the activities of enterprises. However, it is still a challenge to cope with the complexity of systems specifications and their requirements. This issue of the journal of Complex Systems Informatics and Modeling (CSIMQ) presents papers that discuss topics on managing complexity and information systems engineering. The papers are extended versions of selected papers from the workshop on Continuous Requirements Engineering held at the requirements engineering conference REFSQ 2016 in Gothenburg, the workshop on Managed Complexity held at the business informatics conference BIR 2016 in Prague, and the CAiSE 2016 Forum held in Ljubljana.

Identification of Business Informatics Specifics in Agricultural Enterprises

Presented paper deals with analysis and identification of business informatics specifics in agricultural enterprises in the Czech Republic farming at land of size up to 500 hectares. The study is based on thorough review of literature about latest issues in agriculture business informatics. There is a follow up to certain results of previous research on business informatics in agriculture that was conducted by authors in 2013. The analysis has brought findings that business informatics has several peculiarities that must be regarded in informatics implementation and innovation. Those are common economic and organisational effects and further aspects typical for the agriculture such as climate, local conditions and seasonal nature of production.

Innovative learning design: Experiences from gadget workshops in business informatics classes

The paper introduces and discusses the concept of a workshop for students of a Bachelor of Science in Business Information Technology study program, based on theoretical aspects of the experiential learning theory as well as Design Thinking. The goal of the workshop was to enhance the learning outcome of students of this practice-oriented study program. The paper proposes drivers of change for experience-oriented teaching methods as well as reflects on experiential learning theory and design thinking approaches in education for our case, followed by an elaborate description of the conducted workshops and a discussion of the respective outcomes and experiences. The main conclusions of the authors emphasise the insight, that learning from active experience as well as creative tasks for students helps developing cognitive competencies and supports the practical application of the imparted topical information. The experiential class design increased engagement and motivation in the respective class and lead to schematic business concepts developed by the students for further research and development.

Selected Topics on Business Informatics Research: Editorial Introduction to Issue 6 of CSIMQ

Business informatics research bridges management and engineering domains and facilitates communication between scientific and practical applications. The sixth issue of the journal of Complex Systems Informatics and Modeling Quarterly contains four publications that present the extended papers from the workshops of the 14th International Conference on Perspectives in Business Informatics Research (BIR 2015) that was organized in Tartu, Estonia, 26-28 August, 2015. The BIR 2015 workshops captured important and novel topics on information logistics and knowledge supply, security and compliance in business processes, and use of ontologies in information systems. Within this context the fifth publication included in this issue complements the topic of the business informatics research with the investigation of a model-driven approach on the gesture-based interaction in information systems.

Weighing the Pros and Cons of Engaging in Open Innovation

The advantages of open innovation projects are widely discussed in innovation management research and practice (e.g., Man & Duysters, 2005). Particularly, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are expected to gain most from open innovation collaborations due to their inherently limited capabilities (Lee et al., 2010; van de Vrande 2009). However, these enterprises also face manifold challenges in open innovation practice, leading to uncertainty and even renunciation of open innovation project participation. Thus, SMEs often deal with the decision dilemma of having to cooperate with external partners in order to improve their own innovation capacity, regardless of their ability to cope with the correlated risks. Although it is essential for SMEs to find the right balance between positive effects and possible negative consequences (i.e., the “dark sides” of open innovation, cf. Huizingh, 2011) of open innovation project participation, appropriate methods of finding this balance are still lacking. The research project “Open Darkness” was initiated with the goal of enabling SMEs to weigh the risks and benefits of open innovation participation by developing: i) a weighing and decision process framework and ii) a software tool that automatically applies this framework and allows self-assessment for SMEs. Both solutions aim to structure and support the decision process regarding potential engagement in open innovation projects. In order to tackle these targeted outcomes, an interdisciplinary consortium facilitates a multi-perspective and an integrated holistic research approach. Besides several SMEs, which function as requirement authority and implementer, the consortium consists of three German research institutions: the Chair of Economic Law (University of Paderborn), the Chair of Technology and Innovation Management (University of Aachen), and the Chair of Business Informatics (University of Potsdam).

Designing executable business processes as a programming paradigm

Andrey G. Mikheev - Associate Professor, Department of Business Informatics and Industrial Management Systems, National University of Science and Technology MISiSAddress: 4, Leninsky Prospect, Moscow, 119991, Russian Federation E-mail: andrmikheev@gmail.comValeriy E. Pyatetskiy - Professor, Head of Department of Business Informatics and Industrial Management Systems, National University of Science and Technology MISiSAddress: 4, Leninsky Prospect, Moscow, 119991, Russian Federation E-mail: 7621496@gmail.com This article discusses techniques used to design business processes that are directly executable on the computer system of an enterprise (executable business processes). It also describes the experience of teaching the elements of this technology. This experience was accumulated within two years of teaching process disciplines to bachelors and masters in National University of Science and Technology MISiS and Moscow State University of Economics, Statistics and Informatics (MESI). One of the reasons to choose the process way of enterprise automation is reducing the cost of automation. In traditional automation, at first the business analyst describes the functionality of the designed system in the form of text, then the programmer translates it into code. The use of executable business processes would make it possible to avoid duplication of work in many ways. In this case the business analyst with the customer uses visual graphic software to develop the business processes of automated functionality which will then be executed directly in the computer environment. Schemes of executable business processes are the human-readable graphical description of the corresponding functionality and it’s not necessary to translate them into code. Therefore, the cost of analytical work in this case is the same while the cost of programming is significantly lower. If the business environment changes, the business analyst can quickly change the schemes of business processes accordingly without involving the programmer. In addition, in many cases, the business analyst can independently (without programmer) develop new business processes. Therefore, the cost of development, maintenance and support of such IT-solutions is significantly lower than the cost of traditional solutions, while the speed of development, implementation and subsequent changes is significantly higher. These advantages (faster, cheaper, easier to maintain and support) are the same advantages the paradigm of object-oriented programming has over the procedural programming paradigm. By analogy, we can call the development of software solutions based on executable business processes a new programming paradigm with respect to the traditional approach. Process automation based on executable business processes requires process thinking from business analysts that differs from the thinking of IT specialists in the traditional enterprise automation. In addition to knowledge of business process notations, business analysts should be able to implement the typical situations in enterprise business in the form of executable business processes. This article presents the methodology that was used to teach students the process thinking.

Analysis of the management of business informatics framework from the green ICT viewpoint

This paper concentrates on two key areas connected with business informatics, i.e., business informatics management and the role of ICT in promoting sustainable development. The surveys mentioned in this paper show that organisations in the Czech Republic do not devote sufficient attention to these areas and thus lag behind organisations in other developed countries. To help enterprises with the management of their business informatics, the management of business informatics MBI framework was developed. However, this framework does not explicitly address sustainable development or specifically green ICT. Therefore, the analysis of the MBI framework was carried out from the green ICT viewpoint to design the MBI framework extension towards green ICT adjustment.

Specifying temporal knowledge for workflows ontologies

Abstract A workflow is an automation of a process, in which participants (people or programs) are involved in activities for solving a set of tasks according to certain rules and constraints in order to attain a common goal. The concept of workflow appeared in business informatics. Currently the workflow techniques are used in many other fields such as medical informatics, bioinformatics, automation of scientific research, computer-aided design and manufacturing, etc. An ontology is a formal description (in terms of concepts, entities, their properties and relationships) of knowledge for solving a given class of problems. In particular, ontologies can be used in problems related to workflows. In this paper, we introduce a formalism that extends the language of the interval Allen’s logic, and show how this formalism can be applied to specify temporal knowledge in ontologies for workflows. For the extended Allen’s logic, we construct a deduction system based on the analytic tableaux method. We also show (by examples) how to apply the deduction method to query answering over ontologies written in the extended Allen’s logic.

Resource characteristics of ways to organize a decision tree in the branch-and-bound method for the traveling salesmen problem

The resource efficiency of different implementations of the branch-and-bound method for the classical traveling salesman problem depends, inter alia, on ways to organize a search decision tree generated by this method. The classic «time-memory» dilemma is realized herein either by an option of storing reduced matrices at the points of the decision tree, which leads to reduction in the complexity with additional capacity cost, or matrix recalculation for the current node, which leads to an increase in complexity while saving memory. The subject of this paper is an experimental study of temporal characteristics of solving the traveling salesman problem by the branch-and-bound method to identify a real reduction of span time using additional memory in a selected structure of a decision tree. The ultimate objective of the research is to formulate recommendations for implementing the method in practical problems encountered in logistics and business informatics. On the basis of experimental data, this paper shows that both considered options of the classic algorithm for the traveling salesman problem by the branch-and-bound method generate software implementations with an exponential dependence on the execution time of the input length. The experimental results permit us to suggest that the applicability of an additional memory capacity of no more than 1 GB results in a significant (up to five times) reduction of the time span. The estimate of the resulting trend makes it possible to recommend practical application of the software implementation of the branch-and-bound algorithm with storage of matrices with a really available 16 GB random-access memory and with limitation of the expected average computation time of about one minute on modern personal computers whereby problems having a dimension no more than 70 can be solved exactly.

Transferring methods to teach business administration from one cultural context to another

What happens when a teaching method is transferred from one cultural context to another? In this article we investigate this question by looking at how Computer Based Simulations (CBS) were transposed from a French context to an Egyptian one. In this article we demonstrate, through the case of Egypt, how culture and the characteristics of the school system impact learning abilities. We describe what happens when Egyptian students are confronted with learning modes they have not encountered prior to University, in the context of an Egyptian-French dual-degree programme in business administration and business informatics. We show that the transfer of CBS as a teaching method revealed cultural differences between French and Egyptian students. As a consequence the teaching objectives of CBS were redefined in order to take the Egyptian context into account.

Guest editorial: Recent advances on big social data

Big data has been an important issue in information science communities. Recently, limits on the size of datasets that are feasible to process in a reasonable amount of time were on the order of exabytes of data. Scientists in many different domains (e.g. meteorology, genomics, connectomics, complex physics simulations, and biological and environmental research [1, 2]) regularly encounter limitations due to large datasets. In particular, these limitations strongly affect social network applications (e.g. Internet search, finance and business informatics). Social Understanding and Mining has been a complex and hot topic for a large number of research areas in recent years. A society is, in essence, a collection of rational and adaptive individuals taking decisions in a highly interconnected environment, complex, dynamic and non-linear environment. An emergent collective behaviour emerges from such scenario without the necessity to provide specific goals to the users that belong to the group, community or any other kind of social-based structure that the interactions among the users could generate. The rising and huge popularity of Social Network applications (i.e. Facebook or Twitter) have provided an ideal environment to test and simulate new models, algorithms and methods to process knowledge that can be later used to understand (and mine) the behaviours in users or groups [3, 4]. This knowledge can be later used by different agents such as enterprises and private companies, public institutions, or researchers and scholars interested in formal and empirical analysis of social trends. However, these models and techniques could go beyond our current Information Science and Engineering approaches if notable contributions from Social Sciences (i.e. sociology, psychology, e-government, marketing, advertising etc.) are studied and exploited enough [5]. The current gap between theories and models from Social Sciences and advanced methods from Collective Intelligence is still a problem to be solved from both communities. Therefore, this special issue has tried to be a meeting point where researchers in Information Sciences could have the opportunity to present current research results, and to look for new ways of sharing knowledge (techniques, methods, models and theories).

Management of business informatics model – principles and practices

Increasing requirements on the extent and quality of business informatics management have resulted in a development of various methodologies, models, frameworks and standards (e.g. ITIL, COBIT, ISO 20000, etc.). These methodological sources represent current best practices and include recommendations addressing various IT management issues encountered in practice. However, their application in practice brings along numerous problems as showed by the results of recent surveys conducted among Czech organizations. Moreover, their use, in particular in small and medium sized enterprises, is still very limited. In this paper we discuss existing IT management approaches and their limitations with a particular focus on Czech organizations. We base our discussion on available literature, our surveys of Czech organizations and our experiences gained from practical assignments. The MBI (Management of Business Informatics) model developed at the Department of Information Technologies, University of Economics in Prague attempts to overcome such limitations of existing methodologies and models. We describe the basic concepts and features of the MBI model. The MBI model represents an original solution that brings along essential advantages over existing business informatics management methodologies. To such advantages primarily belong monitoring links between individual objects and the possibility to utilize these links as search criteria. Furthermore, the model captures an influence of various business informatics factors on the MBI tasks and enables to adjust its context according to these factors. In addition, the MBI model metrics and analytical applications monitor IT investment effectiveness. The MBI model is available as a web application (at website mbi.vse.cz) and the MBI community participates on its further development.

Cloud Engineering [Guest editors' introduction

Cloud engineering leverages innovations from a diverse spectrum of disciplines, from computer science and engineering to business informatics, toward the holistic treatment of key technical and business issues related to clouds.

Iterative big data clustering algorithms: a review

SummaryEnterprises today are dealing with the massive size of data, which have been explosively increasing. The key requirements to address this challenge are to extract, analyze, and process data in a timely manner. Clustering is an essential data mining tool that plays an important role for analyzing big data. However, large‐scale data clustering has become a challenging task because of the large amount of information that emerges from technological progress in many areas, including finance and business informatics. Accordingly, researchers have dealt with parallel clustering algorithms using parallel programming models to address this issue. MapReduce is one of the most famous frameworks, and it has attracted great attention because of its flexibility, ease of programming, and fault tolerance. However, the framework has evident performance limitations, especially for iterative programs. This study will first review the proposed iterative frameworks that extended MapReduce to support iterative algorithms. We summarize these techniques, discuss their uniqueness and limitations, and explain how they address the challenging issues of iterative programs. We also perform an in‐depth review to understand the problems and the solving techniques for parallel clustering algorithms. Hence, we believe that no well‐rounded review provides a significant comparison among parallel clustering algorithms using MapReduce. This work aims to serve as a stepping stone for researchers who are studying big data clustering algorithms. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.