While we have focused most of our effort on representing various business processes and activities in the Process Handbook, the basic structure of the repository is general enough to include any other kinds of entities authors and editors want to define. In this section we will briefly review several other types of entries included in the Handbook.
As described in chapter 2, dependencies play a central role in coordination theory, and they can be represented in the Process Handbook as shown in figure 8.17. The dependencies are classified as specializations of the three basic dependency types: flow, fit, and sharing.
Resources are the inputs and outputs of a process. Resources define a dependency, in that a dependency exists when a resource produced by one activity is consumed by another activity.
The Process Handbook currently distinguishes two specific types of resources:
Actors—resources that perform activities. Actors can be people, organizations, software agents, and so forth. The Process Handbook currently includes a limited taxonomy of actors, including people, organizations, and software agents.
Locations—places at which activities occurs. The current taxonomy of locations includes physical locations and virtual (cyberspace) locations.
chapters 14 and 16 of this volume, Dellarocas and Klein have developed a taxonomy of exception types and the ways in which these exceptions can be detected, anticipated, avoided, and/or resolved.
(a)Part of the specialization hierarchy below 'Create'going all the way down to specific views and case examples of negotiating contracts
(b)Part of the specialization hierarchy below 'Create'showing ' Produce as a business'and some of its specializations
Figure 8.15:
Figure 8.16: Simplified map of the entire network of activities in the Process Handbook
Figure 8.17: Sample dependency diagram showing two .ow dependencies connecting three activities in an example of a process to manufacture a product. (This .gure is from the ''research'' version of the Process Handbook.)
This taxonomy and a variety of tools for using it are included in the research version of the Process Handbook. For example, the Process Handbook can represent a relationship or link between activities and the types of exceptions that are associated with it (''has exception''). In addition exceptions can be linked to the ways in which they can be addressed (''handled by''). This allows for a powerful connection between the ideal process flow, its exceptions and ways to handle those exceptions without ''cluttering''up the ideal process flow representations. (See chapter 14 for a more detailed explanation of the kinds of exceptions represented and how they can be used.)
Many process representations tend to be developed to support a ''discrete''view of the world—a sequence of activities to perform an iteration of some task. The feedback inherent in a system is not captured in this discrete view. As part of a current project on ''supply chain visualization,''we are expanding the Handbook to be able to support a systems dynamics view of processes too (see Hines et al. 2003).
To do this, we are creating a taxonomy of reusable systems dynamics components or ''molecules.''While the systems dynamics discipline had considered these, by creating a taxonomy, we have been able to highlight ''missing''molecules. In this ongoing work we are exploring how this taxonomy allows for easy building of systems dynamics models using the same techniques incorporated in the handbook for building discrete models (see figure 8.18).