Alaska Simulator Toolset is an interactive software suite developed at the University of Innsbruck which allows to explore di erent approaches to process exibility by using a familiar metaphor, i.e., travel planning and execution. In particular, Alaska Simulator Toolset is used for studying research questions in the context of business process management and other related elds. For this, Alaska Simulator Toolset provides integrated support of di erent approaches to process exibility fostering their systematic comparison. Moreover, Alaska Simulator Toolset facilitates the design and execution of controlled experiments through experimental work ow support.
Group 1 n/2 Participants
Group 2 n/2 Participants
Factor Level 1: Few Constraints Factor Level 2: Many Constraints
First Run California B
Group 1 n/2 Participants
Group 2 n/2 Participants
Second Run
Alaska Con gurator was used to design two journey con gurations (California and Alaska) including locations, actions, events, constraints as well as variability of weather conditions. For each journey con guration two variants were created, one for each factor level (i.e., few and many constraints). To gather the participants' demographic information Alaska Con gurator was used for designing a survey. The journey con gurations and the survey were then assembled to an experimental work ow.
During experiment execution participants were guided by the experimental work ow. After presenting them with a survey, half of the students obtained con guration California with few constraints, while the second half obtained the same con guration with many constraints. The students then planned and executed a journey to California. Each step that was performed while planning and executing was logged for later investigation and detailed analysis. Having completed their California journeys, subjects planned and executed a journey to Alaska.
After the planning session researchers were supported in analyzing the journeys by enabling them to replay journeys step by step using Alaska Analyzer.
Alaska Simulator, including a test con guration, extensive documentation
and screencasts can be downloaded from http://www.alaskasimulator.org. For
detailed information on the results of a controlled experiments which was
conducted using Alaska Simulator we refer to [
Acknowledgements: We thank Felix Schopf for his work on the experimental workow support.