The Implementation of Business Process Reengineering

As more organizations undertake business process reengineering (BPR), issues in implementing BPR projects become a major concern. This field research seeks empirically to explore the problems of implementing reengineering projects and how the severity of these problems relates to BPR project success. Based on past theories and research related to the implementation of organizational change as well as field experience of reengineering experts, a comprehensive list of sixty-four BPR implementation problems was identified. The severity of each problem was then rated by those who have participated in reengineering in 105 organizations. Analysis of the results clearly demonstrates the central importance of change management in BPR implementation success. Resolutions of problems in other areas such as technological competence and project planning were also determined to be necessary, but not sufficient, conditions for reengineering success. Further, problems that are more directly related to the conduct of a project such as process delineation, project management, and tactical planning were perceived as less difficult, yet highly related to project success. This situation was also true for human resource problems such as training personnel for the redesigned process. These findings suggest that reengineering project implementation is complex, involving many factors. To succeed, it is essential that change be managed and that balanced attention be paid to all identified factors, including those that are more contextual (e.g., management support and technological competence) as well as factors that pertain directly to the conduct of the project (e.g., project management and process delineation). As one of the first pieces of empirical evidence based on a field study, this research emphasizes the importance of addressing BPR implementation within the broader context of organizational change in a complex sociotechnical environment.

[1]  Donna B. Stoddard,et al.  Business reengineering at CIGNA Corporation: experiences and lessons learned from the first five years , 1994 .

[2]  James M. Utterback,et al.  Innovation in Industry and the Diffusion of Technology , 1974, Science.

[3]  M. Hammer,et al.  REENGINEERING THE CORPORATION: A MANIFESTO FOR BUSINESS REVOLUTION , 1995 .

[4]  Rob Kling,et al.  Social Analyses of Computing: Theoretical Perspectives in Recent Empirical Research , 1980, CSUR.

[5]  Timothy R. Furey.  A six‐step guide to process reengineering , 1993 .

[6]  Robert P. Bostrom,et al.  MIS Problems and failures: a sociotechnical perspective part I: the cause , 1977 .

[7]  Robert W. Zmud,et al.  Information Technology Planning in the 1990's: Directions for Practice and Research , 1987, MIS Q..

[8]  G. Lippitt,et al.  Implementing organizational change , 1985 .

[9]  M. Venkatraman.  It-enabled business transformation: from automation to business scope redefinition , 1994 .

[10]  M. Markus,et al.  Information technology and organizational change: causal structure in theory and research , 1988 .

[11]  Ephraim R. McLean,et al.  Information Systems Success: The Quest for the Independent Variables , 1992, J. Manag. Inf. Syst..

[12]  Steven Katz,et al.  How benchmarking goes wrong (and how to do it right) , 1993 .

[13]  Marshall W. Meyer,et al.  Power in Organizations. , 1982 .

[14]  D. Brian Harrison,et al.  A Methodology for reengineering businesses , 1993 .

[15]  Floyd J. Fowler,et al.  Survey Research Methods , 1984 .

[16]  Varun Grover,et al.  Recognizing the politics of MIS , 1988, Inf. Manag..

[17]  D. Morris,et al.  Re-Engineering Your Business , 1993 .

[18]  Darrell Rigby.  The secret history of process reengineering , 1993 .

[19]  R. Kaplan,et al.  Core process redesign , 1991 .

[20]  Albert L. Lederer,et al.  Information Resource Planning: Overcoming Difficulties in Identifying Top Management's Objectives , 1987, MIS Q..

[21]  Thomas H. Davenport,et al.  Process Innovation: Reengineering Work Through Information Technology , 1992 .

[22]  J. Ettlie,et al.  Organization Strategy and Structural Differences for Radical Versus Incremental Innovation , 1984 .

[23]  Varun Grover,et al.  Information technology enabled business process redesign: An integrated planning framework , 1993 .

[24]  Blake Ives,et al.  Executive Involvement and Participation in the Management of Information Technology , 1991, MIS Q..

[25]  Thomas J. Housel,et al.  Business process reengineering at Pacific Bell , 1993 .

[26]  Christopher C. Cole,et al.  Reengineering information systems at Cincinnati Milacron , 1993 .

[27]  Kirk D. Fiedler,et al.  Exploring the success of information technology enabled business process reengineering , 1994 .

[28]  T. H. Kwon,et al.  Unifying the fragmented models of information systems implementation , 1987 .

[29]  Charles W. Hofer,et al.  Strategic management : a new view of business policy and planning , 1980 .

[30]  Vasudevan Ramanujam,et al.  Multi-Objective Assessment of Effectiveness of Strategic Planning: A Discriminant Analysis Approach , 1986 .

[31]  Ron Zemke,et al.  Sociotechnical Systems: Bringing People and Technology Together. , 1987 .

[32]  G. Huber,et al.  Retrospective reports of strategic‐level managers: Guidelines for increasing their accuracy , 1985 .

[33]  J. L. Pierce,et al.  Organization Structure, Individual Attitudes and Innovation , 1977 .

[34]  James Champy,et al.  Reengineering Management: The Mandate for New Leadership , 1995 .

[35]  David P. Allen,et al.  Dreaming and doing: Reengineering GTE telephone operations , 1993 .

[36]  Robert S. Buday.  Reengineering one firm's product development and another's service delivery , 1993 .

[37]  Ralph P. Stow.  Reengineering by objectives , 1993 .

[38]  M. Lynne Markus,et al.  Power, politics, and MIS implementation , 1987, CACM.

[39]  William J. Kettinger,et al.  Business Process Redesign and Information Architecture: Establishing the Missing Links , 1992, ICIS.

[40]  Gordon B. Davis,et al.  Management information systems : conceptual foundations, structure, and development , 1985 .

[41]  Kirk D. Fiedler,et al.  Business Process Reengineering: Charting a Strategic Path for the Information Age , 1994 .

[42]  Gilbert A. Churchill.  A Paradigm for Developing Better Measures of Marketing Constructs , 1979 .

[43]  Enid Mumford,et al.  Computer systems in work design--the ETHICS method : effective technical and human implementation of computer systems , 1979 .

[44]  Scott Hamilton,et al.  Evaluating Information Systems Effectiveness - Part I: Comparing Evaluation Approaches , 1981, MIS Q..

[45]  Michael J. Ginzberg,et al.  Early Diagnosis of MIS Implementation Failure: Promising Results and Unanswered Questions , 1981 .

[46]  E. A. Hall,et al.  How to Make Reengineering Really Work , 1994 .

[47]  Jon R. Katzenbach,et al.  The rules for managing cross‐functional reengineering teams , 1993 .

[48]  Jeffrey K. Pinto,et al.  Strategy and Tactics in a Process Model of Project Implementation , 1987 .

[49]  R. Yin.  Case Study Research: Design and Methods , 1984 .

[50]  Henry C. Lucas,et al.  Empirical Evidence for a Descriptive Model of Implementation , 1978, MIS Q..

[51]  T. Davenport.  Need radical innovation and continuous improvement? Integrate process reengineering and TQM , 1993 .

[52]  Blake Ives,et al.  User Involvement and MIS Success: A Review of Research , 1984 .

[53]  M. Peters,et al.  Strategic planning for MIS , 1978 .

[54]  Michael W Lawless.  Implementation Issues in Criminal Justice Modeling , 1976 .

[55]  F. Damanpour.  Organizational Innovation: A Meta-Analysis Of Effects Of Determinants and Moderators , 1991 .

[56]  C. Faucheux,et al.  Organizational Development and Change , 1982 .

[57]  Albert L. Lederer,et al.  Critical Dimensions of Strategic Information Systems Planning , 1991 .

[58]  Dale E. Zand,et al.  Theory of Change and the Effective Use of Management Science. , 1975 .