Gaining insight into business networks: A simulation based support environment to improve process orchestration

Gaining insight into business networks: A simulation based support environment to improve process orchestration

Tewoldeberhan, T.W.

Sol, H.G. (promotor)
Verbraeck, A. (promotor)

Technology, Policy and Management

2005-12-15

In today's world, organizations are becoming increasingly interested in using business networks as a means to adapt to the ever-changing environment to increase their performance level. As a result, the focus of efforts to improve the performance of organizations has shifted from organizational level to the inter-organizational level. An important challenge organizations need to meet in a business network is efficient and reliable business process orchestrations with their partners. Limited visibility of business process orchestrations in the network is one reason. In the research presented in this thesis, we examined process orchestration issues in business networks using the US Department of Defence business network as a case study. From the case study we developed requirements for a support environment to improve the efficiency and reliability of process orchestration in business networks. Based on the requirements, we developed a simulation based support environment that can be used to assist organizations to design an efficient and reliable process orchestration. The simulation based support environment consists of a methodology, which guides the process of improving process orchestration, and a software tool, which assists the development of simulation models. The support environment was tested in an experimental setting. Experts in the field evaluated the usefulness of the support environment. The experiments and expert evaluation show that the support environment can be used to support the process of improving the efficiency and reliability of process orchestration in business networks.

business process orchestration
decision support
simulation and modeling
service orientation
business networks

http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:0056229a-0e45-48ca-b9b8-be6dcadfc5db

90-5638-140-7

Institutional Repository

doctoral thesis

(c) 2005 T.W. Tewoldeberhan