Business process redesign (BPR) is an organizational initiative for achieving competitive multi-faceted advantages regarding business processes, in terms of cycle time, quality, cost, customer satisfaction and other critical performance metrics. In spite of the fact that BPR tools and methodologies are increasingly being adopted, process innovation efforts have proven ineffective in delivering the expected outcome. This paper investigates the eligibility of BPMN process models towards the application of redesign methods inspired by data-flow communities. In previous work, the transformation of a business process model to a directed acyclic graph (DAG) has yielded notable optimization results for determining average performance of process executions consisting of ad-hoc processes. Still, the utilization encountered drawbacks due to a lack of input specification, complexity assessment and normalization of the BPMN model and application to more generic business process cases. This paper presents an assessment mechanism that measures the eligibility of a BPMN model and its capability to be effectively transformed to a DAG and be further subjected to data-centric workflow optimization methods. The proposed mechanism evaluates the model type, complexity metrics, normalization and optimization capability of candidate process models, while at the same time allowing users to set their desired complexity thresholds. An indicative example is used to demonstrate the assessment phases and to illustrate the usability of the proposed mechanism towards the advancement and facilitation of the optimization phase. Finally, the authors review BPMN models from both an SOA-based business process design (BPD) repository and relevant literature and assess their eligibility.

The advancements in computer systems and networks have created a new environment for criminal acts, widely known as cybercrime. Cybercrime incidents are occurrences of particular criminal offences that pose a serious threat to the global economy, safety, and well-being of society. This paper offers a comprehensive understanding of cybercrime incidents and their corresponding offences combining a series of approaches reported in relevant literature. Initially, this paper reviews and identifies the features of cybercrime incidents, their respective elements and proposes a combinatorial incident description schema. The schema provides the opportunity to systematically combine various elements--or cybercrime characteristics. Additionally, a comprehensive list of cybercrime-related offences is put forward. The offences are ordered in a two-level classification system based on specific criteria to assist in better classification and correlation of their respective incidents. This enables a thorough understanding of the repeating and underlying criminal activities. The proposed system can serve as a common reference overtaking obstacles deriving from misconceptions for cybercrimes with cross-border activities. The proposed schema can be extended with a list of recommended actions, corresponding measures and effective policies that match with the offence type and subsequently with a particular incident. This matching will enable better monitoring, handling and moderate cybercrime incident occurrences. The ultimate objective is to incorporate the schema-based description of cybercrime elements to a complete incident management system with standard operating procedures and protocols.

Business processes are a collection of related, structured activities performed to achieve a defined business outcome. Adopting a business process perspective is an essential advantage for organizations to orchestrate and achieve continuous improvements on time and within specified resource constraints. The increased popularity of this domain, however, has resulted in a variety of interdisciplinary approaches with limited tangible, quantifiable -and thus measurable benefits. Operational Research (OR) has critically evolved during the last decades, providing businesses and organizations with problem-solving techniques and methods aiming to enhanced performance and improved efficiency. The proposed project focuses on the development, evaluation and verification of a business process optimisation framework as the central objective of the PhD Thesis. The performed optimisation is intended to use Evolutionary Computing (EC) techniques, as they have been used effectively in a variety of similar problems. The author seeks advice and feedback on the optimal theoretical foundation of the framework, the utilization methods adopted (i.e. in the area of continuous and discrete computational optimization) and the method selection for performance analysis and validation. Furthermore, guidance from experts on the field will decisively influence the PhD Thesis, through directing its orientation to current research trends and future opportunities.