Business Process Improvement Methodologies : An Overview

Due to the massive evolution induced by information and communication technology in all aspects of life, organizations are experiencing rapid changes in all technical, organization, and operational aspects. Organizations need to improve their business processes to achieve customer demands and satisfaction and maintain a competitive position in the market. A diversity of methodologies is available for process improvement. Some of these methodologies gained success and others face some difficulties in recent years but there still seems that there is a room for more improvement methodologies, because a lot of BPI efforts still fail. The large number of these methodologies can make any organization confuse when choosing the appropriate methodology because all the methodologies share many common features and are differed in their effectiveness. The situation is difficult due to the fact that business processes are different in different organizations, and methodologies should be designed based on processes need of each industry. This paper presents a sound literature review involving an overview of the common and important available business process improvement methodologies comprising their phases and their weaknesses and strengths through a clear comparison. The outcome of this paper is to increase the awareness and perceptions of organizations, and help them to take the right decision in selecting the right methodology based on their technical, operational, administrative and organizational aspects.

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