Paper Info
Title
Modelling dynamic behaviour of business organisations—extension of DEMO from a semiotic perspective
Abstract
An organisation is by virtue an information system, in which information is used for communication and coordination of activities. This information system is built upon the organisational infrastructure and is supposed to support the business processes. To study the organisational behaviour in the form of business processes, one needs an effective modelling method to capture dynamics of business processes. In this paper we introduce the DEMO methodology for organisational modelling. An extension of the methodology has been made by incorporating a semiotic method. DEMO is a cross-disciplinary theory for describing and explaining the action of organisations. It contains several model types, each expressed in a specific diagram. They collectively provide the necessary knowledge for information systems development and business process redesign. The process model of DEMO has been discussed in detail in this paper. A need for a facility in DEMO has been identified to formulize rules and conditions for optional and conditional actions. Towards this end, a semiotic method, namely NAM has been chosen as a complement to DEMO for this purpose. After producing process model in terms of DEMO, we use NAM to capture norms (e.g. rules, regulations and conditions). The norms determine the conditions and constrains in controlling optional and conditional actions. They govern the behaviour of actors (agents), normally to decide when certain actions are performed. Norms define clearly the roles, functions, responsibilities and authorities of the actors. The extended DEMO has been applied to a real-life problem for demonstration purposes.
Year
DOI
Venue
2003
10.1016/S0950-7051(02)00077-1
Knowledge-Based Systems
Keywords
Field
DocType
DEMO,Organisational semiotics,Process modelling,Norm analysis,Information systems,Systems design
Information system,Business process,Organisational semiotics,Semiotics,Computer science,Process modeling,Systems design,Knowledge management,Business process reengineering
Journal
Volume
Issue
ISSN
16
2
0950-7051
Citations 
PageRank 
References 
13
0.81
4
Authors
4
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Kecheng Liu1940107.91
Lily Sun2293.61
Joseph Barjis334849.19
Jan L. G. Dietz423923.88