=Paper=
{{Paper
|id=Vol-1458/F16_CRC57_Gessinger
|storemode=property
|title=Flexible Process-Aware Information Systems
Deficiency Management in Construction
|pdfUrl=https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-1458/F16_CRC57_Gessinger.pdf
|volume=Vol-1458
|dblpUrl=https://dblp.org/rec/conf/lwa/GessingerB15
}}
==Flexible Process-Aware Information Systems
Deficiency Management in Construction==
https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-1458/F16_CRC57_Gessinger.pdf
Flexible Process-Aware Information Systems
Deficiency Management in Construction
Sarah Gessinger, Ralph Bergmann
University of Trier, Business Information Systems II, 54296 Trier, Germany
{gessinge,bergmann}@uni-trier.de
www.wi2.uni-trier.de
Abstract. Deficiency management (DM) is an important subfield of
the construction domain which is characterized by a high demand for
immediate and flexible reactions to unexpected problems. Thus, there
is a high potential for flexible process-aware information systems. We
propose a deficiency management system (DMS) to support the DM
process in a flexible manner supported by knowledge-sharing of best-
practice processes. We acquired a set of requirements concerning process
support and knowledge sharing for DMS and present first steps towards
the development of a working prototype.
1 Introduction
To retain the competitive advantage of today’s companies, the streamlining
of business processes is increasingly important to develop new performance-
enhancing features, to accelerate the internal efficiency, and to reduce costs
[1,17]. Moreover, the economic success of a company heavily depends on its
ability to flexibly respond to changes in its environment and to take advantage
from arising opportunities. Hence, the ability to quickly change processes or to
deviate from a pre-set course of action is essential. As a consequence process-
aware information systems (PAISs) are a desirable technology in many domains
as these systems support the operational business of a company based on mod-
els of the organisation and its processes [17]. PAISs include traditional workflow
management (WFM) systems as well as modern business process management
(BPM) systems. Current research particularly addresses approaches for increas-
ing the flexibility of PAIS [1,4]. Recent research in PAIS has also recognized
the need for knowledge management through process reuse from best-practice
process collected in repositories [1]. Knowledge sharing and reuse becomes a cen-
tral prerequisite for enabling process flexibility, in order to address the increased
need for decision making on the process level.
Copyright c 2015 by the paper’s authors. Copying permitted only for private and
academic purposes. In: R. Bergmann, S. Görg, G. Müller (Eds.): Proceedings of
the LWA 2015 Workshops: KDML, FGWM, IR, and FGDB. Trier, Germany, 7.-9.
October 2015, published at http://ceur-ws.org
330
Deficiency Management (DM) is an important subfield of construction do-
main that particularly needs to deal with unforeseen changes, demanding high
flexibility by all involved parties. Generally speaking, a deficiency in construc-
tion is a negative deviation of the actual state of construction of a building
from the specified or expected conditions [15, p. 5]. Thus, a deficiency is always
unexpected and requires immediate remedial actions, which lead to changes of
the current plans. Therefore, we expect that there is a high potential for flexi-
ble PAIS in the field of DM [7]. In this paper, we derive a set of requirements
concerning process flexibility and process reuse in deficiency management sys-
tems (DMS) that are relevant for future more advanced approaches. We present
a related concept as well as first steps towards the development of a working
prototype.
2 Flexibility in Process-Aware Information Systems
A PAIS is “a software system that manages and executes operational processes
involving people, applications, and/or information sources on the basis of process
models” [4]. In order to operationalize process models, a PAIS typically includes
a WFMS as a generic component for the execution of workflows. Traditional
WFMSs strictly separate build time and run time of a workflow. During build
time, a workflow definition is created to operationalize a business process (or a
part of it). During run time, this workflow definition is repeatedly instantiated
to execute the occurring business cases in exactly the same manner over and
over again. For about 15 years, various approaches are discussed to address the
flexibility needs of PAIS [5,16,13,17]. Schonenberg et al. [17] present a classifica-
tion of flexibility approaches into four types: flexibility by definition, flexibility
by change, flexibility by deviation, and flexibility by under-specification. Flex-
ibility by definition refers to the ability to consider alternative execution paths
in the process model during the modelling (build time). Traditional WFMS al-
ready support this type of flexibility. It can only take into account foreseen and
predictable events and changes. Flexibility by change describes approaches that
permit changes of process definitions and/or instances during run-time while
maintaining consistency. Flexibility by underspecification refers to the ability to
execute process descriptions which are not fully specified. Thus, certain decisions
can be deferred to an appropriate point in time during process execution. Late
modelling and late binding are two techniques used for this purpose. Flexibility
by deviation refers to the forth and so far only rarely explored class of approaches
that offers the possibility that the real-world process execution differs from the
modelled process without the need to modify the process definition in advance.
An essential characteristic of all flexibility approaches is the fact that pro-
cess modelling and execution are not strictly separated any more as in classical
workflow systems [1,13]. Thus, a modification or a late modelling during run-
time can be considered a re-modelling of the workflow that immediately effects
its execution. However, modifying a workflow requires significant skills in the
domain as well as in process modelling. Decisions must be taken concering how
331
the workflow is modified and how this modification is formalized in the under-
lying workflow modelling language. Hence, methods are required that support
users in performing such modifications. ADEPT/AristaFlow [16] and CAKE
[3,13] are two advanced workflow systems which support flexibility by change
and underspecification and which include methods to support users in reusing
best-practice workflows.
3 Introducing Process Flexibility into Deficiency
Management Systems
Based on an analysis of current DMS in construction available on the German
market in summer 2014 [6] and four interviews with construction experts, we
now derive a set of requirements for future more advanced DMS. We mainly
focus on those requirements that related to the support by flexible PAIS. Ad-
ditionally, we show how these requirements can be implemented based on the
generic framework CAKE for integrated process and knowledge management.
To provide a general understanding of the DM, we sketch the main processes
and characteristics of this domain firstly.
3.1 Deficiency Management in Constructions
The entire DM process consists of several sub-processes addressing different steps
of the overall DM process. It begins with logging a deficiency. General informa-
tion like issuer name and company are recorded, as well as specific information
such as deficiency description, floor, space, required action, and additional is-
suer notes. Motzko and Racky [14] point out the importance of a comprehensive
record keeping of the deficiency in a centralized and dedicated area due to regu-
latory demands and further business needs. The entered information is verified
and complemented by a responsible person inside the construction company.
Next, the particular kind of deficiency must be identified. For example, deficien-
cies like wall cracks are described by different criteria such as appearance (e.g.
a single or a bundle of cracks), crack width, or possible impacts such as impair-
ment of the structural integrity. Depending on the reported deficiency, a visual
on-site inspection is necessary in order to define the correct deficiency type and
to decide an applicable rectification method. Further, it has to be check if it
is eligible for deficiency rectification (DR) under warranty, for instances, if the
deficiency was caused by liable a subcontractor. In addition the DR has to be
assigned to construction workers for execution. The processing of the DR has
to be controlled until its completion to ensure the timely finalization in accor-
dance with the contract. Therefore, the accurate tracking of all open DRs is
important. Overall, DM must incorporate all involved parties, including all sub-
contractors [14]. DMS aims at supporting DM by providing IT support for the
relevant activities involved in DM. Today, a large variety of DMS exists, with
different strengths and weaknesses. Thus, we analysed the process flexibility ap-
proaches implemented by these systems and determined that more advanced
332
flexibility approaches than flexibility by definition are not implemented in any
of the investigated systems [6].
3.2 User Requirement
The below described requirements have been derived based on the results of the
interviews, also considering general regulatory requirements in DM [8] where
necessary. We illustrate the most important requirements by examples, providing
typical use cases of an envisioned future DMS.
R1: Support for process flexibility. Future DMS must enable flexibility
by change and by underspecification. In particular, ad-hoc changes of workflow
instances must be supported as well as late binding. An additional argument in
favour of these methods is the fact that process instances must remain aligned
with the activities in the real world in order to support tracing of DM processes as
well as their accurate documentation. Further, flexibility by definition is required
due to the high process variability. Example: An assigned construction worker
receives a work order to fix a wall crack based on a process for elastic sealing.
On the construction site s/he investigates the cracks and after cleaning s/he
recognises that there is no need for an elastic sealing as due to drying shrinkage
it is likely that the cracks will stabilize. Therefore, a structural strengthening
non-elastic injection system is more effective. Using a mobile device, the worker
immediately modifies the running process. S/he deletes those activities that are
not relevant any more, i.e., “Prepare elastic sealing material” and “Apply two
layers with the injection system”. Then, s/he adds the activity “Prepare non-
elastic injection material” followed by the activity “Inject material into crack”
at the appropriate position in the workflow instance.
R2: Collaboration support and role-based access control. A process-
oriented collaboration platform is needed for coordinating all activities involved
in DM and for supporting the necessary communication and documentation
needs. As a large variety of parties and persons are involved in DM, such a
platform requires a role-based access control. The access control must enable
a detailed control of access rights for all resources, in particular on the level
of individual tasks. Example: The investigation of a reported deficiency yields
that it was caused by a liable subcontractor. Hence, several tasks of the DR
process must be assigned to some of the subcontractor’s employees. Therefore,
the responsible project leader from the subcontractor accesses the DMS. Due to
her/his access rights s/he is able to make the respective assignments, but only
for those tasks, his company is in charge of.
R3: Knowledge-sharing of best-practise processes. Future DMS sup-
porting process flexibility should also support knowledge-sharing of best-practice
workflows. Successfully finished DM processes should be captured and stored in
a repository. Further, the reuse of best-practice workflows should be supported,
thus asking for appropriate means for navigation and search in the repository.
This requirement particularly arose in the interviews and is considered a means
to improve efficiency and quality in the context of the large variability in DM.
Example: After the successful termination of the DR process for repairing a
333
crack, the project leader can store the particular workflow instance as a best-
practise workflow in a repository. During this process, all case-specific data is
removed and the workflow is generalised towards a workflow definition. At some
later point in time, a similar type of crack must be fixed. By search in the repos-
itory, the previously stored workflow definition is found. It can be instantiated
(and adapted if necessary).
In addition to these three requirements addressing process flexibility and
closely related aspects, several further, more general requirements must be met
as well by future DMS. For example, the usability of such a system must be par-
ticularly ensured by an intuitive user interface enabling to control the flexibility
functions of the PAIS. Also a simple graphical modelling language for workflows
is required to enable staff from construction companies to perform workflow
modelling without the need to involve their IT personnel. Further, providing
access to the DMS via mobile devices is important, as deviations from planned
DR processes are mostly discovered at the construction site.
3.3 CAKE – Collaborative Agile Knowledge Engine
We now briefly describe CAKE, a generic framework for integrated process- and
knowledge management [3] and explain how it could be used to fulfil the iden-
tified requirements. CAKE integrates an agile workflow engine with a so-called
knowledge engine that supports process reuse as a particular kind of knowledge-
sharing. The agile workflow engine is used for the enactment of agile workflows
and supports their collaborative modelling and adaptation in a consistent man-
ner. The workflow engine enables flexibility by change as it allows users to model
and change workflow definition and instances at any time, provided that the user
is granted the respective access right. Further, a simple graphical modelling lan-
guage is available that allows modelling, execution monitoring, and adaptation
of workflows within a browser-based editor. The modelling language includes
placeholder task, thus late binding is supported. So, CAKE is in line with re-
quirement R1.
The purpose of the knowledge engine is to support users in finding, defining,
and adapting workflows according to their current needs. The knowledge engine
implements a process-oriented case-based reasoning (CBR) method [12]. CBR
is an established AI methodology for problem solving based on the assumption
that similar problems have similar solutions [2]. The CAKE knowledge engine
maintains a repository of workflows which can be semantically annotated using
terms from a domain ontology. It supports workflow reuse by similarity-based
retrieval of workflows. Thus CAKE is in line with requirement R3.
Finally, the CAKE framework consists of a storage layer that implements a
role-based access control mechanism for all resources managed by CAKE, in par-
ticular workflows, tasks, documents, services, etc. The access control mechanism
is a decentralized discretionary access control with subject-object relationships
specified in access control lists. Thus CAKE is in line with requirement R2.
The overall CAKE software is implemented as Web-based system. The client
user interfaces enable access to all workflow related functions such as workflow
334
modelling, execution, similarity-based retrieval, and adaptation using a standard
browser. Further, the CAKE Server API also allows mobile applications to di-
rectly connect to CAKE, e.g., to support the mobile execution of tasks on an
Android-based device.
3.4 Applying CAKE for Building a Prototype for Deficiency
Management
We build the first version of a prototype for demonstrating and evaluating the
benefits of process flexibility in DM. For this purpose, we selected a subfield
of frequently occurring deficiencies in construction, namely cracks in facades
and masonry1 . We collected technical background documentation and a set of
process descriptions of respective DR processes from the construction companies
contacted during the interviews. Based on this documentation, we developed an
ontology of the relevant DM tasks and building materials, as well as a deficiency
ontology to classify and describe different kinds of cracks. Further, we formalized
the provided process descriptions using the CAKE workflow editor and thereby
we created a repository of initial best-practice workflows. The resulting domain-
specific CAKE instance can then be used to support the DR process as illustrated
in the following use case.
Use Case: A series of cracks is a reported to the project manager of a con-
struction company. An initial assessment of the cracks takes place, leading to a
description of the cracks w.r.t. the deficiency ontology. Based on this descrip-
tion, the project manager searches for applicable workflows in the best-practice
repository. S/he selects a DR workflow for “elastic sealing of cracks”, starts a
new workflow instance for this case, and assigns a construction worker to the
repair tasks. While performing the first activity of the workflow, which is the
cleaning of the cracks, the worker recognises that most of the cracks exceed the
maximum size allowed for sealing with a flexible injection system. To clarify
which alternative method could be used, s/he searches for similar workflows in
the best-practice repository. The knowledge engine of CAKE retrieves several
workflows which are similar to the present workflow but which are in addition
suitable for larger cracks (see Fig. 1). After inspecting the proposed workflow
s/he decides to apply the method of stitching instead of sealing for repairing
the crack. Thus, the workflow editor of CAKE is used to adapt the workflow to
include the new activities “drill holes on both sides of the crack” and “grout in u-
shaped metal units”. The worker now follows the adapted workflow to complete
the repair, guided by the CAKE workflow engine.
4 Conclusion, Related, and Future Work
In this paper, we have revealed that DM in construction is a new and very
promising application area for flexible PAIS. Due to the fact that deficiencies
1
See http://theconstructor.org/concrete/methods-of-crack-repair/886/.
335
Fig. 1. Screenshots from the DM prototype built using CAKE
always occur unplanned and often require an immediate remedial action, it is
essential that resulting process changes are performed during runtime. High pro-
cess flexibility ask for flexibility approaches by change and/or underspecification.
We have presented a concept and an initial prototype for a PAIS that addresses
these needs based on the prototypical generic software system CAKE for inte-
grated process and knowledge management and briefly demonstrate its feasibility
by a first use case.
The application of process management and workflow systems in the con-
struction industry is discussed for more than ten years in the scientific liter-
ature. Rüppel and Klauer [9] developed a workflow application that supports
construction projects, but they do not consider the needs of process flexibility
related to foreseen and/or unforeseen changes. Körten [11] comprehensively in-
vestigates the use of information technology to support construction processes.
The BauVoGrid project aims at developing a grid-based framework for sup-
porting construction processes. It also includes workflow components as well as
semantic technologies. The project results demonstrated in the field of DM [10].
However, process flexibility is not addressed by this project. Although the in-
vestigation of unforeseen changes within process execution in construction was
already considered in 2005 [9, p. 118], we are not aware of any in-depth research
on this topic so far.
336
Future work will focus on tailoring CAKE for DM and on developing a full
prototype that can be demonstrated to the construction industry. Based on such
a prototype, more detailed case studies concerning the usability and potential
benefits in DM can be performed. Another potential direction of future research
is the investigation of new approaches for flexibility by deviation, which have
the potential to void the need for explicit workflow adaptation. Such approaches
might be able to better support processes in DM where only the purpose is
known in advance, but not the precise order of steps that need to be executed.
References
1. Van der Aalst, W.: Business process management: A comprehensive survey. ISRN
Software Engineering (2013)
2. Bergmann, R.: Experience Management: Foundations, Development Methodology,
and Internet-Based Applications, LNAI, vol. 2432. Springer (2002)
3. Bergmann, R., Gessinger, S., Görg, S., Müller, G.: The Collaborative Agile Knowl-
edge Engine CAKE. In: Proceedings of the 18th International Conference on Sup-
porting Group Work. pp. 281–284. GROUP ’14, ACM, New York, NY, USA (2014)
4. Dumas, M., van der Aalst, W., ter Hofstede, A.: Process-aware Information Sys-
tems: Bridging People and Software Through Process Technology. John Wiley &
Sons, Inc., New York, NY, USA (2005)
5. Fleischmann, A., Schmidt, W., Stary, C., Augl, M.: Agiles Prozessmanagement
mittels Subjektorientierung. HMD Praxis der Wirtschaftsinformatik 50(2), 64–76
(2013)
6. Frei, K.: Mängelmanagement im Bauwesen – Marktübersicht von Software zum
Mängelmanagement und Nutzenpotenziale agiler Prozessunterstützung. Master
thesis, University of Trier (2014)
7. Gessinger, S., Bergmann, R.: Potentialanalyse des prozessorientierten Wissensman-
agement für die Baubranche. In: Henrich, A., Sperker, H.C. (eds.) LWA 2013. Ler-
nen, Wissen & Adaptivität ; Workshop Proceedings. pp. 212–219 (2013)
8. Hechtl, A.: Kooperation im Bauwesen. Bautechnik - Zeitschrift für den gesamten
Ingenierbau 79(6), 396–401 (2002)
9. Klauer, T.: Eine prozessorientierte Kooperationsplattform für Bauprojekte auf Ba-
sis eines internetbasierten Workflow-Managements. Ph.D thesis, Shaker (2005)
10. Klose, S., Angeli, R., Dollmann, T., Ernst, T., Fellmann, M., Hilbert, F., Hoheisel,
A.: Spezifikation der mobilen Workflow Enactment Engine, der entwickelten Ref-
erenzprozessmodelle und der mobilen Dienste. Tech. Rep. BauVOGrid-Bericht A-
5.1 (2010)
11. Körtgen, M.: Optimierungsansätze zur prozessorientierten Abwicklung komplexer
Baumaßnahmen unter Einsatz neuer Informations- und Kommunikationssysteme.
Ph.D thesis, Kassel University Press, Kassel (2010)
12. Minor, M., Montani, S., Recio-Garcı́a, J.A.: Process-oriented case-based reasoning.
Information Systems 40, 103–105 (2014)
13. Minor, M., Tartakovski, A., Schmalen, D., Bergmann, R.: Agile Workflow Tech-
nology for Long-Term Processes - Enhanced by Case-Based Change Reuse. In:
Methodological Advancements in Intelligent Information Technologies: Evolution-
ary Trends, pp. 279–298. IGI Global (2010)
14. Motzko, C., Racky, P.: Erfolgsfaktoren für eine reibungslose Abnahme. Baumarkt
und Bauwirtschaft 101, 30–33 (2002)
337
15. Oswald, R., Abel, R.: Leitfaden über hinzunehmende Unregelmässigkeiten bei
Neubauten. Bau-Verlag (1996)
16. Reichert, M., Weber, B.: Enabling Flexibility in Process-Aware Information Sys-
tems: Challenges, Methods, Technologies. Springer, Berlin-Heidelberg (2012)
17. Schonenberg, H., Mans, R., Russell, N., Mulyar, N., Aalst, W.v.d.: Process Flexibil-
ity: A Survey of Contemporary Approaches. In: Advances in Enterprise Engineering
I, pp. 16–30. No. 10 in LNBIP, Springer Berlin Heidelberg (2008)
338