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A domain-specific conceptual model of a hypothetical
ERP process that resembles an object diagram is shown in
Figure 1. Use of a domain-specific conceptual model
instead of a straight object diagram is justified by the fact
that the ontological foundation of the framework prevents
growth of the objects and relationships indefinitely, and
as a result using an object model may hide such ontology.
In Figure 1 there are two roles: R1 and R2; six tasks: FAT1,
FAT2, OPT1, FAT4, FRT1 and FRT6 (all shown by circles).
It also shows various resources by straight lines connect-
ing tasks and roles. These lines represent rich ontological
relationship between a pair of semantic concepts. Each
task object requires certain resources for achieving its
local/departmental goal or purpose (called process re-
source), as well as certain other resources for achieving
the collaborative organization-wide goals of the ERP
process (called collaborative resource). In Figure 1, a line
connecting a role vertex to a task vertex is a process
resource, whereas a line connecting two tasks together is
a collaborative resource.
According to the framework, effective knowledge and/
or resource exchange among actors is closely related to
the level of awareness as defined in the awareness model
that each actor possess about the ERP process. These
awareness levels are defined in terms of the collaborative
semantic concepts used within the ERP conceptual model
as shown in Figure 1. Details of the proposed methodol-
ogy for identifying awareness requirements of actors in
ERP process follow:
STEP 1. Develop an ERP Process Model similar to that
in Figure 1.
FA: Financial Accounting sub-process/task
OP: Order Processing sub-process/task
CS: Customer Service subprocess/task
FR: Financial Reporting subprocess/task
T1…T6: <appear as postfixes indicating various tasks>
STEP 2. Measure the actual levels of awareness for
each role on the process model using the awareness
model. In order to measure this level of awareness the
actor must be exposed to all the objects on the ERP
process model, and be asked to identify those objects that
s/he is aware of. Selected pool of objects are then used by
an awareness model in order to arrive at a number reflect-
ing the actual level of awareness associated with that role.
STEP 3: The actor’s actual level of awareness is then
is compared against the required level of awareness; the
latter is a parameter, provided by the task that the actor
performs within the process. The difference between
these two levels of awareness constitutes the collabora-
tive requirement of the actor for that particular task.
Factors that affect the required level of awareness of a
task include organisational culture, and the nature of task
itself. Without possessing such awareness level the actor
will not be able to collaborate with others optimally. A
comparison between the actual level of awareness of the
actor and the required level of awareness of the task will
result in one of the following two outcomes:
1. The task’s required level of awareness is either
equal to, or less than, the role’s actual level of
awareness. This indicates that the role is qualified,
or has sufficient level of awareness for taking up the
task, and the OOAB framework cannot enhance
collaboration any further.
2. The task’s required level of awareness exceeds the
role’s actual level of awareness. This indicates po-
tential for enhancing collaboration. To do so it will
be necessary to put the missing objects within the
focus of the actor in a way that s/he can perceive
these objects, receive required awareness, and per-
form that particular task successfully. This will
require additional resources in order to enhance the
actor’s awareness level. These required resources
may include one or more of process resources,
collaborative resources, and other communication
resources, for example resources that provide aware-
ness about other roles and other tasks within the
ERP process.