intro,
objectsmodeling,
simulation,
visualization,
legacysummary,
Q/A,
literature
This chapter has dealt with business objects,
business applications and the issues involved
in business process redesign.
Since
business process redesign may be motivated by changes in technology,
we also discuss the migration from legacy applications.
In section 1,
we discussed the need for business objects and looked at the San Francisco
framework, which aims to provide a generic solution to creating
business applications.
In section 2,
we looked at the issues involved
in business process modeling, which we consider
as a prerequisite for business process redesign.
We dealt with the simulation of the logistic aspects
of business processes and concluded with a small example.
In section 3, we treated object-oriented simulation in somewhat
more detail.
An overview was given of useful simulation classes.
We discussed event scheduling strategies,
and looked at the classic dining philosophers example,
both from an event-based simulation perspective
and a process-based simulation perspective.
In section 4, we looked at interactive information visualization
as a means to support business process redesign and decision making.
An overview was given of the DIVA software architecture,
which allows for distribution, user perspectives and collaboration.
We concluded, in section 5, with a discussion
of the opportunities to migrate from
legacy applications to a modern, object-oriented,
Web-aware architecture.
For more information on business process redesign,
consult [Davenport90], [Hammer90] and [Wastell94].
For an in-depth treatment of simulation, you may read, for example,
[Watkins93].
