The purely
homeostatic organism views any external data it receives, (i.e.
that which impinges upon its consciousness) not as an opportunity
for expansion, but as an immediate threat to its survival, which
must be dealt with as efficiently as possible, so that it can
return to its secure and comfortable slumber of
contentment.
Homeostasis as it
relates to cybernetics is thus a process of self-preservation. The
organism makes every attempt to remove or remedy the disturbance in
the habit patterns of survival which are the basis of its life
caused by the experience of new information. The horse brushes away
the annoying fly, the human removes sensory inputs to maintain his
contentment or concentration.
An organization's
business processes are sequences of homeostatic activities. Some
are intended to create value for customers; others prevent abuse;
still others set strategic targets. This paper presents a modelling
approach for these three aspects, based on use cases for desired
processes and misuse cases to describe hostile processes. The
modelling approach is rooted in General Systems Thinking (GST) and
Cybernetics, explaining business processes as a regulatory
mechanism. Organisations are treated as organisms which
homeostatically maintain their internal states and their
relationships with their stakeholders in the presence of
disturbances from their environment. Business processes both define
the desired states and provide the means to reach
them.
