Week 7 - BPR Methodologies

 Source / Reference:

1) "Critical Review of Existing BPR Methodologies: The Need for a Holistic Approach"  by G. Valiris, M. Glykas 1999

http://www.emeraldinsight.com/journals.htm?articleid=843426

Subject: 

In Lecture 7 - BPR Methodologies

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Response:

There are a variety of BPR methodologies exist nowadays, namely  Management Accounting Methodologies, IS Influenced Methodologies and Organizational Theory Based Methodologies. However, these existing methodologies have a lot of limitations, namely: 

• Lack of systematic approach
• Lack of concentration on a combination of both process improvement and process innervation
• Lack of business analysis tools that are integrated with the business modeling ones
• Do not pay attention to the roles and responsibilities of the related employees
• Design for specialists rather than organizational managers
• Fail to recognize the importance of a diagnostic stage at the beginning of the redesign process
• Business modeling do not take into account organizational issues
• Business analysis is too subjective
• No formal support to ensure consistency across models

Since there are a lot of limitations of existing methodologies, George and Michalis suggested a new BPR methodology called Agent Relationship Morphism Analysis (ARMA) which combines accounting BPR principles with organizational theoretic concepts and some upgraded systematic business modeling tools. By adopting systems thinking and object orientation, ARMA produces a more rigid techniques suitable for business modeling. ARMA emphasizes the establishment of processes and structure that support each other during business analysis and redesign. ARMA also introduces the concept of business rules and verifies the logical consistency of the diagrammatic models.

Advantages of using ARMA:

• Provides theoretical basis for BPR
• Highlights the importance of organizational strategy and its link to business processes
• Provides a set of modeling techniques
• Views the organization from both an individualistic (employee level) and a holistic (business process level) view
• Provides a set of business analysis techniques
• Provides guidance
• Highlights the importance of BPR education and IT
• Evaluates BPR in different cultures and organizational environments

Week 6 - Business Process Reengineering (BPR)

Source / Reference:

1) "Business Process Reengineering BPR"  by Sotiris Zigiaris 2000 
http://www.adi.pt/docs/innoregio_BPR-en.pdf

2) "Business Process Reengineering: Role of Information Technology in the Implementation of BPR" by Nandagopal Ramachandra

http://www.anterron.com/cgi-bin/white_papers/docs/Role_of_IT_in_BPR.pdf

Subject: 

In Lecture 6 - Basics of Business Process Re-engineering II

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Response: 
I'm going to emphasize on the role of  Information Technology in Business Process Reengineering (BPR) and introduce the 3 waves of Business Process Management (BPM) as the lecture notes only mentioned about 2 waves of BPM. 

Information Technology (I.T.) is critical in BPR as it allows businesses to be conducted without the geographic limitation, reduce delivery time and usage of papers. It improves the work performance effectively and efficiently. Disruptive power is one of the major advantage of I.T. in reengineering. It has the power to break the rule, make people think inductively and help a company gains competitive advantage. Amazon.com was one of the company who broke the existing rules by selling books through Internet. It has changed the way book stores make businesses. 

 The roles of I.T. in BPR: 

• Empowering people
• Providing information
• Providing tools
• Providing training
• Eliminating unproductive usage of time
• Eliminating Unnecessary usage of paper
• Eliminating Unnecessary variations in the procedures and systems
• Minimizing the burden of record keeping, data handling and general office work

Waves of Business Process Management (BPM): 

Efficiency and minimized costs were the primary business drivers during 1910s. Technology increasingly became a business driver and increased the speed of change by 1960s. This marked the start of the first wave of process orientation. The second wave of process orientation covered the late 1980s to the early 1990s. Focus shifted to TQM, and then to ISO compliance standards. Technology is shifted from being a process driver to a process enabler during the third wave which began in the mid 1990s and continues in the present as the "coming of age" of process centric business.

Week 5 - Business Process Reengineering (BPR)

Source / Reference:

1) "Business Process Reengineering BPR"  by Sotiris Zigiaris 2000 
http://www.adi.pt/docs/innoregio_BPR-en.pdf

2) "Business Process Reengineering: A Consolidated Methodology" by S. Muthu, L. Whitman, S.H Cheraghi 1999

http://webs.twsu.edu/whitman/papers/ijii99muthu.pdf  

3) "Business Process Reengineering" by Preston Carter 2005

http://www.teamtechnology.co.uk/business-process-reengineering.html

Subject: 

In Lecture 5 - Basics of Business Process Re-engineering

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Response: 
As I have learned the basics of BPR during the lecture, therefore I won't be repeating what have been taught by the lecturer, instead I will be talking about the Characteristics of BPR, Methodology of BPR and a BPR tool that haven't covered. 


Business process re-engineering (BPR) helps in improving and modernizing the performance of an organization. BPR affects the performance of an organization directly, it is the key to transforming how people work. BPR focuses on processes and not on tasks, jobs or people. The best way in implementing BPR is by top down approach and not to undertake a project in isolation. 

Characteristics of BPR:

• Several jobs are combined into one and get done simultaneously
• Decision making is push to lower level
• Processes have multiple versions
• A hybrid centralized/decentralized operation is used
• A single point of contact is provided to customers
• Reconciliation is minimized
• Controls and checks and other non value added work are minimized

Methodology:

• Prepare for BPR
  The question ‘Is BPR necessary?’ should be asked.
• Map and Analyze As-Is Process
  Understand the existing process.
• Design To-Be Process
  Produce one or more alternatives which satisfy the strategic goals of the organization.
• Implement Reengineered Process
  Develop a transition plan that aligns the organizational structure, information systems, and the business policies and procedures with the redesigned processes.
• Improve Process Continuously
  Monitoring the progress of actions and the results. 

The use of a good BPR/documentation tool is vital in any BPR project. A good BPR tool should have the following characteristics: 

• Graphical interface
• "Object oriented" technology
• Drag and drop facility
• Customizable meta data fields
• Analysis
• Support for Value Stream mapping
• CRUD or RACI reports
• The ability to assess the processes against agreed international standards
• Simulation software
• The production of word documents or web site versions of the procedures at the touch of a single button

2c8 is a very comprehensive BPR software that meets all the above requirements. For further information about 2c8, please log on to http://www.2c8.com/ .

Week 4 - Strategic Alignment Model (SAM)

Source / Reference:
1) "Strategic Alignment: Analysis of Perspective" by Preston Coleman and Raymond Papp 2006
http://sais.aisnet.org/2006/Coleman-SAIS2006-paper.pdf

Subject: 
In Lect 4 - Which alignment strategy in SAM model is the best? and why?


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Response:
The alignment of an organization is being assessed using Strategic Alignment Model (SAM). SAM indicates the degree of attention that needs to be paid to both business processes and information technology. Normally, CEO and CIO are the persons in charge of assessing the alignment of an organization.

Different organizations will have to use different perspectives according to their specialization fields. I wouldn’t say there is a BEST alignment perspective since everything has its strengths and weaknesses. It’s just like the Yin and Yang, where everything needs to be balanced. Thus there is no one universally superior perspective.

According to a study done by Preston and Raymond from The University of Tampa, the most common perspectives are strategy execution and technology potential. In Strategy Execution, business processes drives the changes of information technology architecture. It focuses on transformation of the business. Normally, Utilities industry uses this approach the most. In Technology Potential, the value of information technology is shown. Miscellaneous industry uses this approach more often than other industries. 

During the lecture, we have been taught the 4 perspective of SAM, namely Strategy Execution, Technology Transformation, Service Level and Competitive Potential. Actually there are 4 more, namely Organization IT Infrastructure, IT Infrastructure Strategy, IT Organization Infrastructure and Organization Infrastructure Strategy. Other than that, there are also 4 fusion perspectives that are formed from the combination of two of the previous 8 perspectives.