In this issue:Articles
Sponsors:
.infoReader Editor: Gary J. Dickelman
© 2001-2004 EPSScentral LLC. All rights reserved.
Publications and articles referenced here are copyrighted works of their respective owners. The .infoREADER banner is used strictly as a navigational device for linked content and does not imply origin or ownership unless explicitly stated.
| Articles -------------------- Workflow/Process - Evolution of the Workflow Reference Model
Last year saw the 10th anniversary of the Workflow Reference Model. This short paper reassesses the relevance of the Model in the current context of Business Process Management. It discusses the principles behind the Model, its strengths and weakness and examines how it remains relevant to the industry today. It concludes by introducing a number of considerations required to establish a "BPM Reference Model" and discusses how the various overlapping standards in this space may be categorised.
Workflow/Process - Business Process Fusion
Increasing the responsiveness of IT to business processes has become a hot topic in the corporate world. Most enterprises have already made significant investments in automating key business processes; now they want to move to the next level. That is where business process fusion comes in.
Workflow/Process - Gartner Predictions for 2004
One of the benefits of the recent economic downturn is that businesses have tried to identify and manage human processes in a better manner using human-to-human business process management (BPM) technologies. However, this also presents an opportunity to further automate some of the simpler human processes. Because of the high cost of labor, even eliminating simple tasks can reduce costs significantly. This is good news for integration suites, because they contain many of the automation capabilities that move expensive human tasks that are "above the water line" to automation that is completed by less-expensive automated systems "below the water line."
Design & Development - Simple is Sexy (as if we didn't know!)
These days, open-source software is the metrosexual in the IT industry. It's cool and sexy to be open-source. Those of us who've been around open-source for a long time always thought that, but now mainstream businesses and the mainstream press are picking up on that cool factor as well.
Intranets, portals, and the web - Earmarks of open source.
"I anatomize a successful open-source project, fetchmail, that was run as a deliberate test of some surprising theories about software engineering suggested by the history of Linux. I discuss these theories in terms of two fundamentally different development styles, the "cathedral" model of most of the commercial world versus the "bazaar" model of the Linux world. I show that these models derive from opposing assumptions about the nature of the software-debugging task. I then make a sustained argument from the Linux experience for the proposition that 'Given enough eyeballs, all bugs are shallow', suggest productive analogies with other self-correcting systems of selfish agents, and conclude with some exploration of the implications of this insight for the future of software." - Eric S. Raymond, First Monday
Training - The top 100 companies in the field.
" 'If you can't measure it, you can't manage it.'
If this oft-used phrase is true, then this year's Training Top 100 companies have the management of workforce development programs down to a science. While many companies continue to slash training budgets in the naïve hope of improving the bottom line, these 100 companies invested nearly $7 million—on average, 4.1 percent of their payroll—in bettering the professional and personal lives of their employees. By doing so, the 2004 Top 100 have gained a sustainable advantage over their competition by boosting key business metrics—revenue, productivity and quality, to name a few—through highly focused and tightly managed training programs." - Tammy Galvin, Trainingmag.com
Usability - Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox
E-newsletters that are informative, convenient, and timely are often preferred over other media. However, a new study found that only 11% of newsletters were read thoroughly, so layout and content scannability are paramount.
e-Learning
The project described in this article has earned a 2003 ASTD Excellence in Practice Citation in the career development category. Determining when a training solution is the right solution to a performance problem is at the very heart of what we do as learning professionals. Being able to clearly articulate the link between business needs, performance gaps and the impact of the learning solution is where we prove our value as professionals to our business partners. But how do we do that?
Knowledge/Content Managment - New CMS Lists
Usability News reports six new lists/blogs on the topic of content management systems.
Usability - The Problem With Internet Advertising
Why does the most sophisticated communications technology suffer the most primitive forms of advertising? Except in a few cases internet advertising seems at best desperate and at worst antagonistic, writes Thomas Ordahl of strategic branding and internet consulting firm Siegel & Gale, from the DigitalBulletin (newly listed in Periodicals).
Innovation - the heart and soul of performance support.
DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) has conducted a challenge for designers of autonomous ground vehicles (no drivers and no remote control) between Los Angeles and Las Vegas. A cash award of $1 million will be granted to the team that fields the first vehicle to complete the designated route within a specified time limit. The purpose of the challenge is to leverage American ingenuity to accelerate the development of autonomous vehicle technologies that can be applied to military requirements. Editor's note: I learned of this from my Uncle Art, a consultant to DARPA who is playing a key role in this project. Usually when I ask Art what he does for a living, he says, "If I told you, I'd have to kill you."
Innovation - What's all this about VOIP?
Internet telephony is cheap: "The economics finally make sense." But as more and more companies are discovering, it also can let you do some nifty things. Voice over Internet protocol technology is keeping workers--in hospitals, Wall Street brokerages, law firms, even National Basketball Association franchises--connected as never before.
-from Fast Company Editor's Note: I use VOIP to communicate with my software development team in India...for the cost of a local call. Shhh...don't tell the tariff police!
Innovation - HIPAA and Patriot and SOX, oh my!
What's all the fuss about compliance? Big business, and big issues for performance support, that's what! Organizations are faced with a plethora of regulations, from HIPAA (health insurance portability and accountability act of 1996) to Sarbanes-Oxley to the Patriot Act. In the financial sector, for example, detecting patterns of money laundering (e.g., by terrorist organizations and links to them) is hot. System like Mantas deal specifically with Anti-Money Laundering, Broker Surveillance, Fraud Detection, and more. Intranet Journal includes five new articles on this exciting topic - that raise questions and challenges for the performance practitioner.
|
|