Business Process Reengineering: Charting a Strategic Path for the Information Age

Davenport T. Short J. , “The New Industrial Engineering: Information Technology and Business Process Redesign,” Sloan Management Review (Summer 1990), pp. 11–27.

Hammer M. , “Reengineering Work: Don't Automate, Obliterate.” Harvard Business Review (July/August 1990), pp. 104–112.

Moad J. , “Navigating Cross-Functional IS Waters,” Datamation (March 1989), pp. 73–75.

Foster L. Flynn D. , “Management Information Technology: Its Effects on Organizational Form and Function,” MIS Quarterly (December 1984), pp. 229–236.

Davenport Short , op. cit.

Hauser J. Clausing D. , “The House of Quality.” Harvard Business Review, 66/3 (1988): 63–73.

Davenport T. , Process Innovation: Reengineering Work through Information Technology (Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press, 1993).

Based on remarks by Andersen Consulting partner Leroy Patterson, as cited in Magnet M. , “Who is Winning the Information Revolution?” Fortune (November 1992), pp. 110–117.

This framework can be applied to multiple level of analyses. For instance. A, B, and C can each represent discrete tasks or groups of tasks within or across functional areas.

Hammer , op. cit.

McDonell E. Somerville G. , “Corporate Reengineering That Follows the Design of Document Imaging,” Information Strategy: The Executive's Journal (Fall 1991), pp. 5–10.

Ellis C. Gibbs S. Rein G. , “Groupware: Some Issues and Experiences,” Communications of the ACM, 34/1 (1991): 38–58.

Berger J. Angiolillo P. Mason T. , “Office Automation: Making it Pay Off.” Business Week, October 12, 1987, pp. 134–146.

Analyzing the mediation patterns of a process calls for potential elimination of redundant, non-value-adding and sequential activities, which are relatively concrete and observable. A variety of methods can be used for such analysis. One may, for example, extend and adapt structured analysis and design methods for conventional information systems development for this purpose. See DeMarco T , “Structured Analysis and Systems Specification” (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1979). However, the analysis and possible redesign of the coordination pattern for a process must focus attention on communication-intensive activities such as deliberation, negotiation, authorization, and persuasion. These relatively unstructured activities are more difficult to track and analyze than physically coupled procedures. Methods for analyzing communication patterns among knowledge workers have been intensively researched over the years. The application of Petri Nets [see Nierstrasz O.M. , “Message Flow Analysis” in Tsichritzis D. , ed., Office Automation (New York, NY: Springer-Verlag, 1985)] and advanced group communication theories [see Winograd T. Flores F. , Understanding Computers and Cognition: A New Foundation for Design (Norwood, NJ: Ablex Publishing, 1986)] have led to the development of methods having great potential for analyzing and redesigning information-coupled collaborative processes.

For a more complete treatment on this, see Ellis C. A. Gibbs S.J. Rein G.L. , “Groupware: Some Issues and Experiences,” Communications of the ACM, 34/1 (1991): 38–58.

Magnet M. , “Who is Winning the Information Revolution?” Fortune (November 1992), pp. 110–117.

Stewart T. , “The Search for the Organization of Tomorrow,” Fortune, May 10, 1992, pp. 92–98.

Hammer M. Champy J. , Reengineering the Corporation: A Manifesto for Business Revolution (New York, NY: Harper Collins, 1993).

Bartholomew D. , “Charles Schwab Bullish on Reengineering,” Information Week, July 22, 1991, pp. 12–13. For a comprehensive discussion on BPR planning, see Teng J.T.C. Grover V. Fiedler K.D. , “Redesigning Business Processes Using Information Technology,” Long Range Planning, 27/1 (1994): 95–106.

Porter M. Millar V. , “How Information Gives You Competitive Advantage.” Hazard Business Review, 63/4 (1985): 149–160.

Ibid.

Davenport Short , op. cit.

Cited by Davenport Short , op. cit.

Rockart J.F. Short J.E. , “The Networked Organization and the Management of Interdependence,” in Morton M.S. Scott , editor, The Corporation of the 1990s: Information Technology and Organizational Transformation (New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 1991), pp. 191–192. For another insightful treatment on the merits of the emerging flexible organizational form, see reference 31 below.

McWhirter W. , “Chrysler's Second Amazing Comeback,” Business Week, November 9, 1992, p. 51.

Malone T. Rockart J. , “Computers, Networks and the Corporation,” Scientific American (September 1991), pp. 128–136.

Ibid.

Armstrong D. A. , “The People Factor in EIS Success,” Datamation, April 1, 1990, pp. 73–79.

Manager Journal, “Full Steam Ahead with Re-engineering.” ComputerWorld, August 3, 1992, p. 93.

Steward , op. cit.

Bahrami H. , “The Emerging Flexible Organization: Perspectives from Silicon Valley,” California Management Review, 34/4 (Summer 1992): 33–52.