In memory of my beloved mother Inger, always near to me Contact information Louise Östlund School of Communication and Design University of Kalmar SE-391 82 Kalmar Sweden e-mail: louise.ostlund@hik.se A BSTRACT This thesis is founded on the global growth of the service sector and its significance for society as a whole and for the individual human being. In the last decade, technology has changed the way services are created, developed and delivered in remarkable ways. The focus of the thesis is technology in interplay with humans and organisations and the socio- economic-technical systems in which digital services play a central role. Challenges addressed by the thesis include requirement analysis, trustworthy systems, in- and outsourcing aspects, the proper understanding of information and its use in real world applications. With this in mind, the thesis presents a configurable methodology with the purpose to quality assure service oriented workflows found in socio- economic-technical systems. Important building blocks for this are information types and service supported workflows. Our case study is of a call centre-based business called AKC (Apotekets kundcentrum). AKC constitutes a part of the Cooperation of Swedish Pharmacies (Apoteket AB). One of their main services offered to Swedish citizens is the handling of incoming questions concerning pharmaceutical issues. We analysed the interactive voice response system at AKC as a starting point for our investigations and we suggest a more flexible solution. We regard a socio-economic-technical system as an information ecology, which puts the focus on human activities supported by technology. Within these information ecologies, we have found that a Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) can provide the flexible support needed in an environment with a focal point on services. Input from information ecologies and SOA also enables a structured way of managing in- and outsourcing issues. We have also found that if we apply SOA together with our way of modelling a Service Level Agreement (SLA), we can coordinate high-level requirements and support-system requirements. A central insight in this work is the importance of regarding a socio- economic-technical system as an information ecology in combination with in- and outsourcing issues. This view will prevent a company from being drained of its core competences and core services in an outsourcing situation, which is further discussed in the thesis. By using our combination of SOA and SLA we can also divide service bundles into separate services and apply economic aspects to them. This enables us to analyse which services that are profitable while at the same time meet important requirements in information quality. As a result, we propose a set of guidelines which represent our approach towards developing quality assured systems. We also present two main types of validation for service oriented workflows: validation of requirement engineering and validation of business processes. I P REFACE Life is strange and unpredictable, and the last two years of my life have been evidence of this. In 2005, I felt unrestrained joy and happiness when my husband Martin and I got married. Two weeks after our wedding, I was overwhelmed with sorrow when my beloved mother passed away and a few months later, my aunt also passed away. You see, diseases are inconsiderate – they have no regard for weddings or future plans, theses or dissertations. They are just there even if our greatest desire is to cure them. One way for me to deal with all this has been to work on this thesis, but the thesis would not have been completed without the constant support from my colleague Patrik. He helped me get through the difficult days and has always been willing to talk and listen whenever needed. Patrik, you know I will be the first to visit your gas station. Furthermore, I have always received great support from my supervisor Professor Rune Gustavsson, from my co-supervisor Päivi Jokela, from all the members of SoC at Blekinge Institute of Technology and from my colleagues at the University of Kalmar. I also want to give special thanks to Lars Malmborg for his continuous support and belief in Patrik and me. Thanks finally to those involved at Apoteket and AKC, and to our language expert Johan Höglund for valuable comments. To my loving family and to my wonderful friends: thank you. Thank you for always being there for me and believing in me. Finally, to my husband Martin: your support is beyond words. I would never have managed to deal with the events of the last few years without you. You make me the happiest woman on earth. Carpe diem. Louise TABLE OF CONTENTS III T ABLE OF CONTENTS PREFACE I TABLE OF CONTENTS III CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1 1.1 S ETTING THE SCENE 1 1.2 T HE PURPOSE OF THE THESIS 2 1.3 O VERVIEW OF THE THESIS 2 1.4 R ESULTS 5 1.5 O WN CONTRIBUTIONS 5 1.6 A SSESSMENT OF THE L ICENTIATE T HESIS 8 1.7 T HESIS STRUCTURE 8 1.8 G UIDELINES TO THE READER 9 CHAPTER 2 BACKGROUND 11 2.1 I NPUT AND FINDINGS FROM THE L ICENTIATE THESIS 11 2.2 S UMMARY OF CHAPTER 13 CHAPTER 3 CASE STUDY 15 3.1 B ACKGROUND 15 3.2 T HE VIRTUAL ORGANISATION FOR AKC 17 3.2.1 A GENTS 18 3.2.2 G OVERNING AND CONTROLLING AUTHORITIES AND AGENCIES 19 3.2.3 O WNER STRUCTURE 20 3.3 L EGAL FRAMEWORK 20 3.4 P RESENT STRUCTURE OF AKC’ S INTERACTIVE VOICE RESPONSE 22 3.5 A NALYSIS OF ERROR REPORTS 25 3.6 T OWARDS A CONFIGURABLE METHODOLOGY 27 3.6.1 O WN CONTRIBUTIONS TOWARDS AN ASSURED WORKFLOW AT AKC 28 3.7 C HALLENGES 34 3.8 S UMMARY OF CHAPTER 37 TABLE OF CONTENTS IV CHAPTER 4 SERVICES AND SERVICE DEVELOPMENT 39 4.1 I NTRODUCTION 39 4.2 T HE CHANGE OF THE SERVICE CONCEPT 40 4.3 S ERVICE DEVELOPMENT IN A POTEKET ’ S CONTEXT 41 4.4 Q UALITY ASPECTS OF THE SERVICE CONTEXT 45 4.5 C ONNECTION TO THE REMAINING PART OF THE THESIS 47 4.6 S UMMARY OF CHAPTER 49 CHAPTER 5 THEORETICAL ASPECTS OF INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION 51 5.1 I NTRODUCTION 51 5.2 R EPRESENTATION , INFORMATION AND KNOWLEDGE 52 5.3 S ITUATIONS , TYPES AND INFORMATION EXCHANGES 54 5.3.1 S ITUATIONS AND TYPES 54 5.3.2 E XCHANGING INFORMATION 57 5.4 S EMANTICS 58 5.5 I NFORMATION FLOWS , SITUATIONS AND TYPES AT AKC 59 5.6 I NFORMATION AND INFORMATION SECURITY 61 5.7 I NFORMATION QUALITY AND INFORMATION ASSURANCE AT AKC 64 5.8 I NFORMATION ECOLOGIES 65 5.8.1 W HAT CHARACTERIZES AN INFORMATION ECOLOGY ? 66 5.9 AKC VIEWED AS AN INFORMATION ECOLOGY 69 5.10 S UMMARY OF CHAPTER 72 CHAPTER 6 METHODOLOGICAL ISSUES 73 6.1 I NTRODUCTION 73 6.2 M ODELLING PROCESS 75 6.2.1 C ONTEXT LEVEL 76 6.2.2 C ONCEPT LEVEL 77 6.2.3 A RTEFACT LEVEL 80 6.3 S UMMARY OF CHAPTER 82 CHAPTER 7 OUR APPROACH 83 7.1 C HALLENGES REVISITED 83 7.2 I DENTIFICATION OF WORKFLOWS AT AKC 85 TABLE OF CONTENTS V 7.3 I DENTIFICATION OF TASKS AT AKC 90 7.4 I DENTIFYING INFORMATION TYPES , FLOWS AND DIALOGUES AT AKC 90 7.5 E NSURING INFORMATION QUALITY AT AKC 97 7.6 A SET OF GUIDELINES 99 7.7 S UMMARY OF CHAPTER 100 CHAPTER 8 MODELS OF VALIDATION AND CONCLUSIONS 101 8.1 I NTRODUCTION 101 8.2 M AIN TYPES OF VALIDATION FOR SERVICE - ORIENTED WORKFLOWS 102 8.2.1 V ALIDATION OF REQUIREMENT ENGINEERING 103 8.2.2 V ALIDATION OF BUSINESS PROCESSES 106 8.3 O THER VALIDATION ASPECTS 108 8.4 C ONCLUSIONS 109 8.5 S UMMARY OF CHAPTER 111 CHAPTER 9 FUTURE WORK 113 9.1 T HOUGHTS ON FUTURE WORK 113 GLOSSARY 117 REFERENCES 121 F IGURES F IGURE 1.1 G ENERIC ARCHITECTURE FOR SOCIO - ECONOMIC - TECHNICAL SYSTEMS . 3 F IGURE 3.1 T HE VIRTUAL ORGANISATION OF AKC. 18 F IGURE 3.2 T REE - STRUCTURE FOR THE INTERACTIVE VOICE RESPONSE - BASED WORKFLOW . 24 F IGURE 3.3 D IFFERENT ASPECTS AND ISSUES CONCERNING SOCIO - ECONOMIC - TECHNICAL SYSTEMS . 29 F IGURE 3.4 P ERSPECTIVES ON A SOCIO - ECONOMIC - TECHNICAL SYSTEM . 36 F IGURE 4.1 W EB S ERVICE COMPONENTS [41]. 45 F IGURE 4.2 W HERE THE DIFFERENT METHODOLOGIES AND THEORIES ARE USED IN THIS WORK . 48 F IGURE 5.1 T YPES AND INFORMATION FLOWS [4]. 56 F IGURE 5.2 A CONVERSATION DIAGRAM [4]. 57 F IGURE 5.3 A MESSAGE EXCHANGE WITHOUT COMMON GROUND . 63 F IGURE 6.1 R EVISED C OMMON KADS MODEL . 75 F IGURE 6.2 M ODIFIED TASK MODEL ( TO THE RIGHT ) IN RELATION TO THE SOCIO - ECONOMIC - TECHNICAL SYSTEM ( TO THE LEFT ). 76 TABLE OF CONTENTS VI F IGURE 6.3 O VERVIEW OF THE COORDINATION MODEL WITH SLA 78 F IGURE 6.4 O VERVIEW OF THE COMMUNICATION MODEL [5]. 79 F IGURE 6.5 G ENERAL LAYOUT OF A DIALOGUE DIAGRAM [5]. 80 F IGURE 6.6 SOA AS A SUPPORT FOR CUSTOMER ORIENTED WORKFLOWS 81 F IGURE 7.1 C HALLENGES FOUND IN SOCIO - ECONOMIC - TECHNICAL SYSTEMS . 85 F IGURE 7.2 D IVISION OF AKC’ S BUSINESS PROCESSES INTO SMALLER ELEMENTS . 86 F IGURE 7.3 A NORMATIVE WORKFLOW . 87 F IGURE 7.4 T HE ACTUAL WORKFLOW AT AKC. 88 F IGURE 7.5 F ROM WORKFLOW TO SUBTASK . 90 F IGURE 7.6 T YPES AND INFORMATION FLOW [4]. 92 F IGURE 7.7 C RITICAL HAND - OVER SITUATIONS IN THE OVERALL WORKFLOW . 93 F IGURE 7.8 A DIALOGUE SITUATION EXTRACTED FROM THE OVERALL WORKFLOW . 94 F IGURE 7.9 S ERIAL DIALOGUES . 94 F IGURE 7.10 A CONVERSATION DIAGRAM FOR AKC. 96 F IGURE 8.1 A RCHITECTURE FOR VALIDATION EXPERIMENTS . 102 F IGURE 8.2 R EVISED C OMMON KADS MODEL . 103 F IGURE 8.3 W ORKFLOW GENERATED SERVICES . 107 T ABLES T ABLE 1.1 O WN CONTRIBUTIONS . 6 T ABLE 1.2 R ELEVANCE FOR THE DISSERTATION WORK . 7 [...]... when it comes to in- and outsourcing In my view, all of this has to do with the type of business and the information the business is built upon Locating and defining an organisation’s information ecology, in which core business and high-level requirements exist, will be of utmost importance when discussing whether to outsource certain services or not This also holds for the decision to insource; which... (Information in use: aspects of information quality in workflows) [3] and Louise Östlund (Information in use: in- and outsourcing aspects of digital services) respectively The results from these theses are closely related and can be seen as one unit, but can also be read individually or as a complement to each other 1.2 The purpose of the thesis The overall purpose of this thesis is to find ways to... assure the quality of the information flow between a customer and a human agent at, for example, AKC Assuring the information flow in a situation where the customer or AKC’s personnel interact with digital services is also of interest Beside the overall purpose, Louise Östlund’s thesis deals with inand outsourcing aspects of digital services and Patrik Brandt’s thesis exemplifies how information quality... development of the service sector and the challenges that Europe faces is behind our interest in digital services, the main topic of this thesis We argue that one of the overall purposes of digital services is to mediate information, which makes information a fundamental part in this context Hence the title Information in use With this title as a starting point we then chose to focus on two different aspects. .. development, we present an overview of services and their development with special focus on digital services In Chapter 5 Theoretical aspects of information and communication, we discuss theoretical aspects of information and communication by using Devlin’s theory of information (Infosense), and in Chapter 6 Methodological issues we present methodological issues based 8 INTRODUCTION on the CommonKADS methodology... identification of information types, information flows and dialogues at AKC In connection to this, the CommonKADS methodology is used once again but this time in combination with Devlin’s Infosense theory According to us, the tasks are performed by means of certain dialogues and we have found that critical hand-over situations take place when information is to be transmitted between these dialogues Considering... assurance of central workflows in critical business processes*, and we find examples of these kinds of flows and processes within AKC 2.2 Summary of chapter In this chapter, the following is discussed: • • • • In the Licentiate thesis, General Systems Theory was applied, but this theory is now left behind In the Licentiate thesis, important sustainable socio-economictechnical aspects in the shape of interactions... insource; which services can be incorporated into existing information ecologies? How can these ecologies be encouraged to evolve without disturbing the ecological invariants? Thus, the greatest challenge is to achieve resilient information ecologies so that a business can be profitable and continue to deliver digital services without letting go of its core business and appurtenant information Solutions to... information types as a proposal of how to categorise the existing information types in AKC’s digital information system These six information types can also be used to great advantage to reorganise AKC’s supply of services and also act as a foundation for a new way of structuring in the interactive voice response as well We also propose a set of guidelines towards developing systems with assured qualities,... on two different aspects which we think are of great importance, namely aspects of information quality in workflows where digital services are a vital part and also in- and outsourcing aspects of digital services In this thesis we have used a customer care centre (Apotekets Kundcentrum which from now on will be referred to as AKC) which is part of the Corporation of Swedish Pharmacies (Apoteket AB which . Brandt (Information in use: aspects of information quality in workflows) [3] and Louise Östlund (Information in use: in- and outsourcing aspects of digital. to in- and outsourcing. In my view, all of this has to do with the type of business and the information the business is built upon. Locating and defining