INESC TEC- Institute for Systems and Computer Engineering, Technology and Science

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Publications

Inven!RA Architecture for sustainable deployment of immersive learning environments

Publication . Morgado, Leonel; Coelho, António; Beck, Dennis; Gütl, Christian; Cassola, Fernando; Baptista, Ricardo; Van Zeller, Maria; Pedrosa, Daniela; Cruzeiro, Tiago; Cota, Duarte; Grilo, Ricardo; Schlemmer, Eliane

The objective of this work was to support the sustainable deployment of immersive learning environments, which face varied obstacles, including the lack of support infrastructures for active learning pedagogies. Sustainability from the perspective of the integration of these environments in educational practice entails situational awareness, workload, and the informed assessment ability of participants, which must be supported for such activities to be employed in a widespread manner. We have approached this wicked problem using the Design Science Research paradigm and produced the Inven!RA software architecture. This novel result constitutes a solution for developing software platforms to enable the sustainable deployment of immersive learning environments. The Inven!RA architecture is presented alongside four demonstration scenarios employed in its evaluation, providing a means for the situational awareness of immersive learning activities in support of pedagogic decision making.

2023-01-03Journal article

Open access

Best practices for business process automation description: a case study

Publication . Silvares, Catarina; São Mamede, Henrique; Costa, João

Organizations in competitive, regulated environments must enhance business processes for efficiency, quality, and compliance while minimizing risks and costs. Process automation solutions play a vital role in achieving these goals, though the variety of tool descriptions creates challenges for compatibility and interoperability. This hinders innovation and competitiveness. The adoption of standard specifications or widely accepted best practices for automation descriptions offers a solution. This research aims to identify a set of best practices to guide process-oriented organizations in evaluating their current automation practices, ensuring alignment and fostering improvements in business process automation.

2024-09-12Journal article

Open access

Business process automation in SMEs: a systematic literature review

Publication . Moreira, Sílvia; São Mamede, Henrique; Santos, Arnaldo; Santos

Business Process Automation has been gaining increasing importance in the management of companies and organizations since it reduces the time needed to carry out routine tasks, freeing employees for other, more creative and exciting things. It can be applied in the most varied business areas. Organizations from any sector of activity can also adopt it. Given these benefits, the granted success in transforming business processes would be expected. However, automation initiatives still fail. Adopting this technology can raise social, technological, ethical, methodical, and organizational issues. These facts have triggered the necessity for a summary that could extract more information about how to implement Business Process Automation (BPA), attending to the administrative processes, especially when applied in Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs). This study aims not only to review the available literature on how to implement BPA but also to typify the processes that can be automated, which technologies or tools exist for making that change, and influence factors in the procedure of BPA. We have covered more than 300 research papers published between 2016 and 2023 in reputable scientific data sources like Scopus, Web of Science/Clarivate, and ScienceDirect/Elsevier. The review revealed some paths for BPA, with some common steps. In addition, some common process characteristics fundamental to automation are exposed, as well as factors that are critical to an organization for successful automation. The results indicate that BPA is an established area in Business Process Management related to technologies/tools like Robotic Process Automation (RPA) or Cognitive-Robotic Process Automation (C-RPA), Workflow Management Systems (WfMS), Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), and Blockchain. As far as we observed, this Systematic Literature Review(SLR) is a unique study that covers all the environmental variables for applying automation in business processes.

2024-05-28Journal article

Restricted access

A lightweight ontology for enterprise architecture mining of API gateway logs

Publication . Pinheiro, Carlos Roberto; Guerreiro, Sérgio Luís P. Duarte; São Mamede, Henrique

Enterprise Architecture (EA) is defined as a set of principles, methods, and models that support the design of organizational structures, expressing the different concerns of a company and its IT landscape, including processes, services, applications, and data. One role of EA management is to automate modeling tasks and maintain up-to-date EA models while reality changes. However, EA modeling still relies primarily on manual methods. Contributing to EA modeling automation, EA Mining is an approach that uses data mining techniques for EA modeling and management. It automatically captures existing information in operational databases to generate architectural models and views. This paper presents an ontology for EA Mining that focuses on generating architectural models from API gateway log files. An ontology defines the concepts and relationships among them to uniquely describe a domain of interest and specify the meaning of the terms. API Gateways are information technology components that serve as a facade between information systems and enterprise business partners. The ontology development methodology followed the SABiO process, whereas the Unified Foundational Ontology provided the foundations of the ontology and OntoUML, the ontology modeling language. An experiment in an e-commerce application scenario was conducted to evaluate the theoretical feasibility and applicability of the ontology. Automatic semantic and syntactic validation tools and semi-structured expert interviews were used to confirm the desired ontology properties. This study aims to contribute to the evolution of the knowledge base of EA Management.

2024-09-09Journal article

Restricted access

Framework for adaptive serious games

Publication . Pistono, Alvaro Marcos Antonio de Araujo; Santos, Arnaldo; Baptista, Ricardo José Vieira; São Mamede, Henrique

Professional training presents a significant challenge for organizations, particularly in captivating and engaging employees in these learning initiatives. With the ever‐evolving landscape of workplace education, various learning modes have emerged within organizations, and e‐learning stands out as a prominent choice. This increasingly cost‐effective and adaptable solution has revolutionized training by facilitating numerous learning activities, including the seamless integration of educational games driven by cutting‐edge technologies. However, incorporating serious games into educational and professional settings introduces its own set of challenges, particularly in quantifying their tangible impact on learning and assessing their adaptability across diverse contexts. Organizations require a consistent framework to guide best practices in implementing e‐learning combined with serious games in professional training. The primary objective of this research is to bridge this gap. Rooted in the methodology of Design Science Research, it aims to provide a comprehensive framework for creating and assessing adaptive serious games that achieve desired learning and engagement outcomes. The overarching goal is to enhance the teaching–learning process in professional training, ultimately elevating student engagement and boosting learning outcomes to new heights. The proposal is grounded in a review of literature, expert insights, and user experiences with Serious Games in professional training, considering learning outcomes and forms of adaptation as essential characteristics for developing or evaluating Serious Games. The result is a framework designed to guide learners toward improved learning outcomes and increased engagement. The proposal underwent evaluation through triangulation, involving focus groups and expert interviews. Additionally, it was utilized in the development and assessment of a Serious Game, offering new insights and application suggestions. This experiment provided an evaluation of the framework based on real courses. In summary, this investigation contributes to the development of evidence‐based approaches for the effective use of Serious Games in professional training.

2024-03-07Journal article

Restricted access