Paula Martins | University of Algarve (original) (raw)

Papers by Paula Martins

Computer Science and Information Systems, 2016

Process descriptions represent high-level plans and do not contain information necessary for conc... more Process descriptions represent high-level plans and do not contain information necessary for concrete software development projects. Processes that are unrelated to daily practices or that are hardly mapped to project practices, cause misalignments between processes and projects. We argue that software processes should emerge and evolve collaboratively within an organization. With this propose, this article describes the ProPAM methodology and explores the details of its static view. We also present a case study to validate effectiveness of the proposed methodology. The aim of the case study was to analyse the effects of using ProPAM in a IT organization.

Procedia Technology, 2013

With the implementation of a computerized maintenance management system for a corporate perspecti... more With the implementation of a computerized maintenance management system for a corporate perspective in the Organization ANA, SA. Aeroportos de Portugal, combined with several parameterizations related to core business processes in place, naturally there was a set of opportunities to improve business processes through research and metrics development allowing more analyses. These were previously dealt without the same depth and without access to the same database and data model. On this basis, the idealization of the maintenance management procedure, based on the framework for maintenance management in force in the organization, moved quickly to the reality. The development of the procedure starts by identifying problems, setting goals and objectives to be achieved, research literature in maintenance area and best practice in service management with a focus on ITIL, study existing maintenance standards with respect to concepts and KPI calculation methods, presentation of business processes in production at the Organization, development of the procedure for maintenance management with appropriated methods and outcome analysis, and finally the main conclusions of the work. A major contribution of this work has been considered a series of actions to improve and/or correct existing business processes that may prove technical, organizational and economic benefits for the maintenance management in that Organization.

Information flows across the organization are complex and procedures employed to understand, shar... more Information flows across the organization are complex and procedures employed to understand, share and control organizational knowledge and experiences should be properly supported by collaborative environments. Nevertheless, few collaborative methodologies had been proposed to describe and evolve business processes. Existing tools don't provide the right methods for business processes discovery, modelling, monitoring and improvement. In the future, business processes models should be the result of cross-team and crossdepartmental collaboration, with involved business people sharing their personal knowledge and formalizing it. This discussion paper focuses on collaborative process discovery methods, tools and the importance to integrate local information into coherent and sound process definitions. Business Alignment Methodology is a methodology that provides guidance about how organizational practices and knowledge are gathered to contribute for business process improvement aga...

Lecture Notes in Business Information Processing, 2012

Business process modeling methodologies need to pay attention to (1) the changing and distributed... more Business process modeling methodologies need to pay attention to (1) the changing and distributed nature of business process, and (2) the contextual and tacit nature of the knowledge that operational actors have regarding business process. However, available methodologies offer little guidance to these concerns. This paper describes how to model business process models from work practices, using the BAM methodology. BAM is a methodology for business process modeling, supervision and improvement that works at two dimensions; the dimension of processes and the dimension of work practices. The paper illustrates BAM's business process discovery approach, which encompasses learning and modeling subphases, with a case study in an organizational setting.

Procedia Technology, 2012

Current business process modeling methodologies offer little guidance regarding how to keep busin... more Current business process modeling methodologies offer little guidance regarding how to keep business process models aligned with their actual execution. This paper describes how to achieve this goal by uncovering and supervising business process models in connection with work practices using BAM. BAM is a methodology for business process modeling, supervision and improvement that works at two dimensions; the dimension of processes and the dimension of work practices. The business modeling component of BAM is illustrated with a case study in an organizational setting.

Este documento apresenta uma proposta de modelo de referência para análise e comparação de lingua... more Este documento apresenta uma proposta de modelo de referência para análise e comparação de linguagens de especificação de "processos de negócio baseados em Web Services" (PNWS). Descrevem-se os aspectos e tópicos que caracterizam o modelo referência. Segue-se a análise das várias linguagens de especificação PNWS, propostas a standards, referenciando os padrões comuns à modelação de processos de negócio. Para concluir mencionam-se aspectos fundamentais ainda não incorporados nas linguagens candidatas a standards para especificação de PNWS.

Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 2006

This paper discusses the importance of software process improvement in a virtual environment wher... more This paper discusses the importance of software process improvement in a virtual environment where several organizations are cooperatively involved in the development of a software product, each one using its own development process. The main focus of the paper is a methodology, called Process and Project Alignment Methodology, to improve the development process of a single organization based on projects knowledge. However, the authors believe that the same fundaments can be applied in a virtual organization and discuss the extension of the presented methodology to a virtual organizational context.

Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 2005

Within the constant evolution observed in IT/IS area, new processes emerged faced to new customer... more Within the constant evolution observed in IT/IS area, new processes emerged faced to new customer's requirements and also due to new trends in software engineering community, such as unified or agile processes. Despite the great set of available tools in process and project management, still there is a real gap between "process" and "project" management approaches and respective tools. To assist team members on their work, the effort spend in a process customization could be used in other tasks, such as the project management task to control activities, work products and team members. In this paper, we describe a simplified SPEM-based metamodel for process specification and explain the motivation around this proposal. Considering this metamodel, we also propose a metamodel for project definition and configuration. To conclude, we demonstrate that this metamodel is better adapted to processes specification and can be applied in a project definition.

2010 Seventh International Conference on the Quality of Information and Communications Technology, 2010

Software Process Improvement (SPI) is one of the main actual software development challenges. Pro... more Software Process Improvement (SPI) is one of the main actual software development challenges. Process metamodels allow capturing informational and behavioural aspects of software development processes. Unfortunately, standard process meta-modelling approaches, such as the Software Process Engineering Meta-model (SPEM), OPEN Process Framework (OPF) and Standard Meta-model for Software Development Methodologies (SMSDM), focus just on process description, providing different models for several versions of the same process. According to these metamodelling approaches, it is not possible to compare and identify improvements in an improved process. This lack of information recognizes that further research in SPI meta-model is needed to reflect the evolution/change on software processes. Considering this limitation in SPI meta-modelling, this paper presents a comparative study of the most recognized process meta-models approaches and introduces a new SPI based metamodel designed by ProjectIT-Process Meta-model (PIT-ProcessM). Our intention is to present observed problems in existing approaches and propose a process meta-model that addresses features related to process changes and evolution.

Encyclopedia of Networked and Virtual Organizations, 2008

Process descriptions represent high-level plans and do not contain information necessary for conc... more Process descriptions represent high-level plans and do not contain information necessary for concrete software projects. Misalignments between processes and projects are caused by processes that are unrelated to daily practices or, hardly, mapped to project practices. We argue that software processes should emerge and evolve collaboratively within an organization. In this article we present a process and project authoring tool based on our vision for agile software process improvement.

Sendo o metamodelo Software Process Engineering Metamodel (SPEM) promovido no âmbito da OMG como ... more Sendo o metamodelo Software Process Engineering Metamodel (SPEM) promovido no âmbito da OMG como norma para especificação de processos de desenvolvimento de software, é essencial a sua comparação com os processos existentes. Este artigo analisa a expressividade e adequabilidade dos conceitos de suporte, de componentes e do ciclo de vida do processo segundo a terminologia SPEM, através de uma comparação com três processos, designadamente RUP, XP e MSF. Em particular, a definição de um conjunto de padrões observados no contexto dos processos de desenvolvimento de software, permitirá capturar elementos comuns à maior parte dos processos comerciais.

Procedia Computer Science

Business Process Management (BPM) encompasses the discovery, modelling, monitoring, analysis and ... more Business Process Management (BPM) encompasses the discovery, modelling, monitoring, analysis and improvement of business processes. Limitations of traditional BPM approaches in addressing changes in business requirements have resulted in a number of agile BPM approaches that seek to accelerate the redesign of business process models. Meta-models are a key BPM feature that reduce the ambiguity of business process models. This paper describes a meta-model supporting the agile version of the Business Process and Practice Alignment Methodology (BPPAM) for business process improvement, which captures process information from actual work practices. The ability of the meta-model to achieve business process agility is discussed and compared with other agile meta-models, based on definitions of business process flexibility and agility found in the literature.

QUATIC 2007 - 6th International Conference on the Quality of Information and Communications Technology, 2007

Software Process Improvement (SPI) is one of the main software development challenges. Unfortunat... more Software Process Improvement (SPI) is one of the main software development challenges. Unfortunately, process descriptions generally do not correspond to the processes actually performed during software development projects. They just represent high-level plans and do not contain the information necessary for the concrete software projects. This deficient alignment between the process and project is caused by processes that are unrelated to project activities and failure in detecting project changes to improve the process. Process and project alignment is essential to really find out how process management is important to achieve an organization's strategic objectives. Considering this approach, this paper presents a comparative study of some of the most recognized SPI approaches and a new software process improvement methodology proposed, designed by Process and Project Alignment Methodology (ProPAM). Our intention is to show the problems observed in existing SPI approach and recognize that further research in process and project alignment based on actor oriented approaches is required.

Communications in Computer and Information Science, 2008

Software Process Improvement (SPI) is one of the main software development challenges. Unfortunat... more Software Process Improvement (SPI) is one of the main software development challenges. Unfortunately, process descriptions generally do not correspond to the processes actually performed during software development projects. Process and project alignment is essential to really find out how process improvement is important to achieve an organization's strategic objectives. Considering this approach, this paper presents a new software SPI methodology designated by Process and Project Alignment Methodology (ProPAM). As a complement to be aware about project changes and facilitate the migration to an improved process, we propose a metric called ProPAMet to analyze the alignment between process and projects. To conclude, a case study contributed to validate the effectiveness of ProPAM and ProPAMet.

2014 9th International Conference on the Quality of Information and Communications Technology, 2014

ABSTRACT

Computer Science and Information Systems, 2016

Process descriptions represent high-level plans and do not contain information necessary for conc... more Process descriptions represent high-level plans and do not contain information necessary for concrete software development projects. Processes that are unrelated to daily practices or that are hardly mapped to project practices, cause misalignments between processes and projects. We argue that software processes should emerge and evolve collaboratively within an organization. With this propose, this article describes the ProPAM methodology and explores the details of its static view. We also present a case study to validate effectiveness of the proposed methodology. The aim of the case study was to analyse the effects of using ProPAM in a IT organization.

Procedia Technology, 2013

With the implementation of a computerized maintenance management system for a corporate perspecti... more With the implementation of a computerized maintenance management system for a corporate perspective in the Organization ANA, SA. Aeroportos de Portugal, combined with several parameterizations related to core business processes in place, naturally there was a set of opportunities to improve business processes through research and metrics development allowing more analyses. These were previously dealt without the same depth and without access to the same database and data model. On this basis, the idealization of the maintenance management procedure, based on the framework for maintenance management in force in the organization, moved quickly to the reality. The development of the procedure starts by identifying problems, setting goals and objectives to be achieved, research literature in maintenance area and best practice in service management with a focus on ITIL, study existing maintenance standards with respect to concepts and KPI calculation methods, presentation of business processes in production at the Organization, development of the procedure for maintenance management with appropriated methods and outcome analysis, and finally the main conclusions of the work. A major contribution of this work has been considered a series of actions to improve and/or correct existing business processes that may prove technical, organizational and economic benefits for the maintenance management in that Organization.

Information flows across the organization are complex and procedures employed to understand, shar... more Information flows across the organization are complex and procedures employed to understand, share and control organizational knowledge and experiences should be properly supported by collaborative environments. Nevertheless, few collaborative methodologies had been proposed to describe and evolve business processes. Existing tools don't provide the right methods for business processes discovery, modelling, monitoring and improvement. In the future, business processes models should be the result of cross-team and crossdepartmental collaboration, with involved business people sharing their personal knowledge and formalizing it. This discussion paper focuses on collaborative process discovery methods, tools and the importance to integrate local information into coherent and sound process definitions. Business Alignment Methodology is a methodology that provides guidance about how organizational practices and knowledge are gathered to contribute for business process improvement aga...

Lecture Notes in Business Information Processing, 2012

Business process modeling methodologies need to pay attention to (1) the changing and distributed... more Business process modeling methodologies need to pay attention to (1) the changing and distributed nature of business process, and (2) the contextual and tacit nature of the knowledge that operational actors have regarding business process. However, available methodologies offer little guidance to these concerns. This paper describes how to model business process models from work practices, using the BAM methodology. BAM is a methodology for business process modeling, supervision and improvement that works at two dimensions; the dimension of processes and the dimension of work practices. The paper illustrates BAM's business process discovery approach, which encompasses learning and modeling subphases, with a case study in an organizational setting.

Procedia Technology, 2012

Current business process modeling methodologies offer little guidance regarding how to keep busin... more Current business process modeling methodologies offer little guidance regarding how to keep business process models aligned with their actual execution. This paper describes how to achieve this goal by uncovering and supervising business process models in connection with work practices using BAM. BAM is a methodology for business process modeling, supervision and improvement that works at two dimensions; the dimension of processes and the dimension of work practices. The business modeling component of BAM is illustrated with a case study in an organizational setting.

Este documento apresenta uma proposta de modelo de referência para análise e comparação de lingua... more Este documento apresenta uma proposta de modelo de referência para análise e comparação de linguagens de especificação de "processos de negócio baseados em Web Services" (PNWS). Descrevem-se os aspectos e tópicos que caracterizam o modelo referência. Segue-se a análise das várias linguagens de especificação PNWS, propostas a standards, referenciando os padrões comuns à modelação de processos de negócio. Para concluir mencionam-se aspectos fundamentais ainda não incorporados nas linguagens candidatas a standards para especificação de PNWS.

Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 2006

This paper discusses the importance of software process improvement in a virtual environment wher... more This paper discusses the importance of software process improvement in a virtual environment where several organizations are cooperatively involved in the development of a software product, each one using its own development process. The main focus of the paper is a methodology, called Process and Project Alignment Methodology, to improve the development process of a single organization based on projects knowledge. However, the authors believe that the same fundaments can be applied in a virtual organization and discuss the extension of the presented methodology to a virtual organizational context.

Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 2005

Within the constant evolution observed in IT/IS area, new processes emerged faced to new customer... more Within the constant evolution observed in IT/IS area, new processes emerged faced to new customer's requirements and also due to new trends in software engineering community, such as unified or agile processes. Despite the great set of available tools in process and project management, still there is a real gap between "process" and "project" management approaches and respective tools. To assist team members on their work, the effort spend in a process customization could be used in other tasks, such as the project management task to control activities, work products and team members. In this paper, we describe a simplified SPEM-based metamodel for process specification and explain the motivation around this proposal. Considering this metamodel, we also propose a metamodel for project definition and configuration. To conclude, we demonstrate that this metamodel is better adapted to processes specification and can be applied in a project definition.

2010 Seventh International Conference on the Quality of Information and Communications Technology, 2010

Software Process Improvement (SPI) is one of the main actual software development challenges. Pro... more Software Process Improvement (SPI) is one of the main actual software development challenges. Process metamodels allow capturing informational and behavioural aspects of software development processes. Unfortunately, standard process meta-modelling approaches, such as the Software Process Engineering Meta-model (SPEM), OPEN Process Framework (OPF) and Standard Meta-model for Software Development Methodologies (SMSDM), focus just on process description, providing different models for several versions of the same process. According to these metamodelling approaches, it is not possible to compare and identify improvements in an improved process. This lack of information recognizes that further research in SPI meta-model is needed to reflect the evolution/change on software processes. Considering this limitation in SPI meta-modelling, this paper presents a comparative study of the most recognized process meta-models approaches and introduces a new SPI based metamodel designed by ProjectIT-Process Meta-model (PIT-ProcessM). Our intention is to present observed problems in existing approaches and propose a process meta-model that addresses features related to process changes and evolution.

Encyclopedia of Networked and Virtual Organizations, 2008

Process descriptions represent high-level plans and do not contain information necessary for conc... more Process descriptions represent high-level plans and do not contain information necessary for concrete software projects. Misalignments between processes and projects are caused by processes that are unrelated to daily practices or, hardly, mapped to project practices. We argue that software processes should emerge and evolve collaboratively within an organization. In this article we present a process and project authoring tool based on our vision for agile software process improvement.

Sendo o metamodelo Software Process Engineering Metamodel (SPEM) promovido no âmbito da OMG como ... more Sendo o metamodelo Software Process Engineering Metamodel (SPEM) promovido no âmbito da OMG como norma para especificação de processos de desenvolvimento de software, é essencial a sua comparação com os processos existentes. Este artigo analisa a expressividade e adequabilidade dos conceitos de suporte, de componentes e do ciclo de vida do processo segundo a terminologia SPEM, através de uma comparação com três processos, designadamente RUP, XP e MSF. Em particular, a definição de um conjunto de padrões observados no contexto dos processos de desenvolvimento de software, permitirá capturar elementos comuns à maior parte dos processos comerciais.

Procedia Computer Science

Business Process Management (BPM) encompasses the discovery, modelling, monitoring, analysis and ... more Business Process Management (BPM) encompasses the discovery, modelling, monitoring, analysis and improvement of business processes. Limitations of traditional BPM approaches in addressing changes in business requirements have resulted in a number of agile BPM approaches that seek to accelerate the redesign of business process models. Meta-models are a key BPM feature that reduce the ambiguity of business process models. This paper describes a meta-model supporting the agile version of the Business Process and Practice Alignment Methodology (BPPAM) for business process improvement, which captures process information from actual work practices. The ability of the meta-model to achieve business process agility is discussed and compared with other agile meta-models, based on definitions of business process flexibility and agility found in the literature.

QUATIC 2007 - 6th International Conference on the Quality of Information and Communications Technology, 2007

Software Process Improvement (SPI) is one of the main software development challenges. Unfortunat... more Software Process Improvement (SPI) is one of the main software development challenges. Unfortunately, process descriptions generally do not correspond to the processes actually performed during software development projects. They just represent high-level plans and do not contain the information necessary for the concrete software projects. This deficient alignment between the process and project is caused by processes that are unrelated to project activities and failure in detecting project changes to improve the process. Process and project alignment is essential to really find out how process management is important to achieve an organization's strategic objectives. Considering this approach, this paper presents a comparative study of some of the most recognized SPI approaches and a new software process improvement methodology proposed, designed by Process and Project Alignment Methodology (ProPAM). Our intention is to show the problems observed in existing SPI approach and recognize that further research in process and project alignment based on actor oriented approaches is required.

Communications in Computer and Information Science, 2008

Software Process Improvement (SPI) is one of the main software development challenges. Unfortunat... more Software Process Improvement (SPI) is one of the main software development challenges. Unfortunately, process descriptions generally do not correspond to the processes actually performed during software development projects. Process and project alignment is essential to really find out how process improvement is important to achieve an organization's strategic objectives. Considering this approach, this paper presents a new software SPI methodology designated by Process and Project Alignment Methodology (ProPAM). As a complement to be aware about project changes and facilitate the migration to an improved process, we propose a metric called ProPAMet to analyze the alignment between process and projects. To conclude, a case study contributed to validate the effectiveness of ProPAM and ProPAMet.

2014 9th International Conference on the Quality of Information and Communications Technology, 2014

ABSTRACT