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- A method for selecting processes for automation with AHP and TOPSISPublication . Costa, Diogo Silva; São Mamede, Henrique; Silva, Miguel Mira daOrganizations are more frequently turning towards robotic process automation (RPA) as a solution for employees to focus on higher complexity and more valuable tasks while delegating routine, monotonous and rule-based tasks to their digital colleagues. These software robots can handle various rule-based, digital, repetitive tasks. However, currently available process identification methods must be qualified to select suitable automation processes accurately. Wrong process selection and failed attempts are often the origin of process automation's bad reputation within organizations and often result in the avoidance of this technology. As a result, in this research, a method for selecting processes for automation combining two multi-criteria decision-making techniques, Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) and Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS), will be proposed, demonstrated, and evaluated. This study follows the Design Science Research Methodology (DSRM) and applies the proposed method for selecting processes for automation to a real-life scenario. The result will be a method to support the proper selection of business processes for automation, increasing the success of implementing RPA tools in an organization.
- Design thinking for training with serious games: a systematic literature reviewPublication . Rosal, Tatianna; São Mamede, Henrique; Silva, Miguel Mira daSerious Games use game strategies to encourage participants to make decisions and face challenges in a training environment; the more interactive the game, the more engaged the participants are with the content. Moreover, the best way to train is to simulate and identify scenarios for decision making, recreating situations, and strategies for learning. The Serious Games for training have this purpose. A Serious Game for Training can be refined with a game narrative, a methodology centered on the player to present independent and straightforward scenarios, giving solutions through the game story. The challenge is to rethink a unique narrative according to the individual player's experience. The present systematic literature review aims to answer which are the benefits of using Design Thinking for serious game narratives; the benefits of learning theories; the Design Thinking benefits for innovative solutions; and how game design elements can create an engaging Serious Game experience.
- Towards a comprehensive framework for the multidisciplinary evaluation of organizational maturity on business continuity program management: a systematic literature reviewPublication . Russo, Nelson; Reis, Leonilde; Silveira, Clara; São Mamede, HenriqueOrganizational dependency on Information and Communication Technology (ICT) drives the preparedness challenge to cope with business process disruptions. Business Continuity Management (BCM) encompasses effective planning to enable business functions to resume to an acceptable state of operation within a defined timeframe. This paper presents a systematic literature review that communicates the strategic guidelines to streamline the organizational processes in the BCM program, culminating in the Business Continuity Plan design, according to the organization’s maturity. The systematic literature review methodology follows the Evidence- Based Software Engineering protocol assisted by the Parsifal tool, using the EbscoHost, ScienceDirect, and Scopus databases, ranging from 2000 to February 2021. International Standards and Frameworks guide the BCM program implementation, however, there is a gap in communicating metrics and what needs to be measured in the BCM program. The major paper result is the confirmation of the identified gap, through the analysis of the studies that, according to the BCM components, report strategic guidelines to streamline the BCM program. The analysis quantifies and discusses the contribution of the studies on each BCM component to design a framework supported by metrics, that allows assessing the organization’s preparedness in each BCM component, focusing on Information Systems and ICT strategies.
- Next generation of microservices for the 5G Service‐Based ArchitecturePublication . Moreira, João Bourbon; São Mamede, Henrique; Pereira, Vasco; Sousa, BrunoThe architecture for 5G core includes a Service-Based Architecture for the diverse network functions (NFs), which relies on HTTP/2 for the SBI and TCP as the underlying transport protocol. The specifications of the HTTP family is moving towards more efficient and secure protocols, which are based on UDP to assure enhanced transport but using TLS to secure the communication channel. The next generation of microservices needs to be more secure, per- formant and easily manageable, where HTTP/3 and containers orchestration platforms (like Kubernetes) can provide significative contributions towards such goals. Different deployment approaches can be followed for services implemented in compliance to the 5G SBA. This paper contributes with the assessment of deployment models for services in 5G networks, where NFs are implemented following traditional architectures (all the functions in a VM) or as serverless architectures (with functions distributed in containers). The per- formance of microservices in Kubernetes is also evaluated. The evaluation con- ducted also considers the employment of different versions of HTTPs to empower the service-based interfaces of 5G services. Results demonstrate per- formance benefits of employing HTTP/3, based on QUIC protocol, in scenarios with networks characterised by losses or delay conditions. Despite such gain, deployment in 5G networks needs to carefully consider aspects related with connection tracking mechanisms to support high volumes of requests.
- A survey on association rule mining for enterprise architecture model discoveryPublication . Pinheiro, Carlos; Guerreiro, Sérgio; São Mamede, HenriqueAssociation Rule Mining (ARM) is a field of data mining (DM) that attempts to identify correlations among database items. It has been applied in various domains to discover patterns, provide insight into different topics, and build understandable, descriptive, and predic- tive models. On the one hand, Enterprise Architecture (EA) is a coherent set of principles, methods, and models suit- able for designing organizational structures. It uses view- points derived from EA models to express different concerns about a company and its IT landscape, such as organizational hierarchies, processes, services, applica- tions, and data. EA mining is the use of DM techniques to obtain EA models. This paper presents a literature review to identify the newest and most cited ARM algorithms and techniques suitable for EA mining that focus on automating the creation of EA models from existent data in application systems and services. It systematically identifies and maps fourteen candidate algorithms into four categories useful for EA mining: (i) General Frequent Pattern Mining, (ii) High Utility Pattern Mining, (iii) Parallel Pattern Mining, and (iv) Distribute Pattern Mining. Based on that, it dis- cusses some possibilities and presents an exemplification with a prototype hypothesizing an ARM application for EA mining.
- Assessment of organizational readiness for digital transformation in SMEsPublication . Silva, Rui Pedro; Saraiva, Célia; São Mamede, HenriqueFinding the right strategy enabled by a solid digital transformation is a key challenge that Small and Medium Enterprises face. With a high number of transformations that fail, there is a significant investment in research to identify critical factors that ultimately drive a more successful journey, and at the same time, quite a few different models to assess the digital transformation maturity. There is, however, a gap in assessing how ready a SME is, to successfully embrace the transformation, and an even bigger gap in assessing it from employee’s perspective. This work is proposing a model to assess that readiness. The organizational readiness assessment aims to enable SMEs to better understand the foundations that need to be set, to successfully deliver the transformation. A user-friendly model that assesses the non-technological aspects of an organization, from the employee ́s perspective, indicating the clear gaps that ultimately might negatively impact the future of the organization when digitally transforming.
- A personalized narrative method to improve serious gamesPublication . Rosal, Tatianna; São Mamede, Henrique; Silva, Miguel Mira daSerious Games apply game strategies to a training environment to encourage participants to make decisions and face challenges - the more interactive, the greater the participants’ involvement with the content. Moreover, the best way to train is to simulate and identify scenarios for decision making, recreating situations, and strategies for learning. The Serious Games for training have this purpose. A Serious Game for training can be refined with a game narrative, a methodology centered on group experience defining problems and giving solutions through the game story. The challenge is how to diversify a unique narrative according to the individual player’s experience. The present study aims to answer, using Design Science Research, whether a personalized narrative can improve the design of serious games for training. The specific goal is to design, develop and evaluate an artifact based on Design Thinking to design a personalized narrative method for Serious Games.
- Robotic Process Automation (RPA) adoption: a systematic literature reviewPublication . Costa, Diogo; São Mamede, Henrique; Silva, Miguel Mira daRobotic Process Automation (RPA) is a recent technology that has recently become increasingly adopted by companies as a solution for employees to focus on higher complexity and more valuable tasks while delegating routine, monotonous and rule-based tasks to their digital colleagues. The increased interest, joint with the increased number of articles regarding approaches and test cases, has triggered the necessity for a summary that could extract the more generalizable ideas and concepts about these software robots. In this paper, a Systematic Literature Review (SLR) approach was used to find and synthesize information through the obtained articles on this subject. This research identified the most general implementation features of successful RPA adoption cases, observed benefits, challenges commonly faced by organizations, characteristics that make processes more suitable for RPA, and research gaps in the current literature. The findings present in this paper have two purposes. The first is to provide a way for companies and organizations to become more familiar with good practices regarding robotic process automation adoption. The other is to foster further research on the subject by complementing the current knowledge and proposing new paths for research.
- Creativity in prototypes design: the case of social organizationsPublication . Silveira, Clara; Santos, Vitor; Reis, Leonilde; São Mamede, HenriqueThe role of creativity techniques in the design of prototypes is of particular interest given its potential for innovation. At same time, despite the efforts of decades in terms of policies and programs of action, humanity has not yet come close to global sustainability. Sustainability design must involve society and creatively employ all available knowledge sources for creating sustainable software. This paper proposes a prototype design approach rooted in employing creativity techniques, while being guided by the dimensions and principles of the Karlskrona Manifesto. This approach is applied to the development of a multidisciplinary aggregator for the optimization of social services. As a result. guidelines for the use of creativity in requirements engineering will be presented, as well as on how to include sustainability issues, namely the Sustainable Development Goals and the five dimensions of sustainability in the design of prototypes.
- Management model and capture of benefits integrated into the practice of project managementPublication . Almeida, André; Santos, Carolina; São Mamede, Henrique; Malta, Pedro; Santos, VitorAn attempt has been made to address the difficulty of identifying and measuring the benefits derived from investment projects and capturing capital gains for an organization, focusing on developing and implementing a management model and realizing benefits for a leading company in its activity sector. Thus, the objective is to understand how it is possible to achieve the expected benefits of an investment project: A model characterized as generalist was developed (applied to all areas of the company), with the objective of optimizing the realization of benefits, measuring them and thus create value for the organization. Among the methods used, we highlight, in a first phase, the research of some existing Frameworks, which later enabled the development of a proposed framework, validated internally using the existing Business Intelligence platform. Subsequently, based on a satisfaction questionnaire about the framework proposed to users, data related to its development and implementation were collected, with the aim of understanding its acceptance among the users and employees of the company. With the data from this questionnaire, an artifact was developed: a PowerBI dashboard that reflects the benefits identified and captured. In summary, the artifact made it possible to identify, measure, and achieve the benefits generated by the project in question, but also to motivate its use in other existing investment projects, by adapting it to each of the other ones.