Integrated management of human and computer resources in task processing organisations: a conceptual view

Presents a framework for management of human and computerised resources within a task processing organisation. A distinction between routine, template, and ad-hoc tasks is made. Resource demands are deterministic for routine tasks, stochastic for template tasks and unpredictable for ad-hoc tasks. The modelling language SP is used to describe hierarchies of computer and human resources which provide services to other resources at a higher level of abstraction or to services. Human agents and hardware are the primary resources, and cannot be further decomposed. A methodology for this framework is described and illustrated with an example from a blood bank application. This example shows how introducing an information system may slow down the organisation.<>