A systemic framework for modeling information handoffs in human-centric processes

In order to complete any process, humans need to interact with other humans or systems, while systems can interact with other systems. Such interactions are a common and an everyday phenomenon. Artifacts, such as information, authority, responsibility, and physical material, to name a few, are exchanged during such interactions. These points, where artifacts are exchanged between the players involved, are referred to as the handoff points. Information is often distorted or lost during the handoff process. Poor information management during these handoffs, especially in the critical human-centric processes, can result in undesired outcomes. Consequently, it is essential to identify and handoff the significant artifacts to ensure process continuity and avoid sub-optimal outcomes.;Though handoff points have been recently gaining importance, the concept of a handoff is not well studied. Furthermore, the definition of a handoff point is very domain-centric, i.e., the handoff point definition used in the telecommunications domain is not applicable to the healthcare domain, and vice versa. Currently, there are no formal methods in the literature that can help identify handoff points in a process. This research proposes a generic definition of the handoff points which holds its validity irrespective of the domain it is applied to. Additionally, means to identify the handoff points are presented in this research using relational analysis. The handoff points are further analyzed and characterized based on their behavioral facets, process qualifiers and the type of activity they are intended to perform. A rule-based approach is used for these characterizations.;Current modeling techniques fail to identify and delineate the handoff points. Also, these techniques have limited ability to capture the informational perspective of a business, i.e., most techniques inadequately answer the question; 'What information (or other artifacts) is required to complete the process?' Imperfect handoffs, i.e., the exchange of missing or incomplete artifacts, can negatively influence the process. Existing modeling techniques are less equipped to analyze the impact of such poor quality handoffs.;To address the aforementioned deficiencies, this research proposes and validates a new modeling technique, the handoff chain. The handoff chain is defined as an algebraic structure of states, inputs, outputs, and two relations -- states-inputs and states-outputs. It is developed using the handoff chain algorithm and is depicted using diagrammatic representation. This technique can represent multiple business perspectives, namely, functional, informational, organizational and behavioral. Additionally, the handoff chain can identify the must-haves for a process and provides the functionality to analyze the impact of flawed or poor quality handoffs.;The developed handoff chain can further be enhanced using the reduction algorithm, which is a new improvement method proposed in this research. This algorithm aims at reducing the number of states and the number of handoffs that occur in the process.;The entire framework for identifying, analyzing and improving the handoffs is applied to an Emergency Department (ED) setting in the healthcare environment. An ED is characterized by numerous interactions, wherein information, responsibilities, authority, and material is frequently exchanged between the players involved with the ED. Information distortion or loss at these points of exchange can have serious consequences. Thus, development of the handoff chain and improving the same using the reduction algorithm for an ED setting is presented in this research. The impacts of this research and its potential extensions are also detailed.