CCE Theses and Dissertations

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Date of Award

2008

Document Type

Dissertation - NSU Access Only

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy in Information Systems (DISS)

Department

Graduate School of Computer and Information Sciences

Advisor

Marlyn K. Littman

Committee Member

Sumitra Mukherjee

Committee Member

John Scigliano

Keywords

Business Process Reengineering, Disruptive change, Newspaper publishing, Process Modeling, Project Management, XML Process Definition Language

Abstract

Disruptive change transforms existing organizational processes. Newspaper organizations such as Orlando Sentinel Communications (OSC) tend to resist process change. As with most newspaper companies in the United States, OSC management was confronted with unprecedented disruptive change and challenges by the accelerated evolution of its business models and processes. This investigation identified and modeled OSC circulation processes to support disruptive change initiatives. The XML Process Definition Language (XPDL) is an XML specification and process modeling solution developed by the Workflow Management Coalition (WFMC) designed to exchange workflow process semantics and graphics. This investigation focused on developing an XPDL process model of OSC circulation processes to address process transformations inherent to disruptive change. The method was a case study of OSC circulation processes through the System Development Life Cycle (SDLC) framework to develop a reproducible XPDL process model for OSC to use in planning for disruptive change. The investigation found that XPDL to be well-suited as the language for expressing workflow models to plan, align, and implement processes that anticipate disruptive change. The results of this research also confirmed that organizational values, workflow activities, and subflows play a prominent role in an incumbent organization's response to disruptive change. Finally, this study established that process model metainformation associated with workflow activities, transitions, and resources are core attributes in planning for disruptive change.

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