Lecture- Reengineering 2

Analysis and Design of Information Systems Reengineering 2 Version 1.0 The need of an approach like reengineering emerged from an observation- nothing is stable today. Customer demand, type of competition, change in technology, and growth of market- everything is changing. This mercurial business environment requires a switch from task orientation to process orientation. The definition of reengineering can be stated as it is fundamental analyzing, rethinking and redesigning business processes to achieve dramatic improvement not marginal improvements. Reengineering does not mean that it is reorganization of the business system. Redesign and reorganization are two different things. Reengineering also does not mean downsizing. Though due to elimination of unnecessary and redundant tasks that create delays and loops in the system are cut, it is not called downsizing. Rather than eliminating employees it focuses on optimization and efficiency. Reengineering in public sector can be difficult (e.g. government processes). It is challenging because reengineering requires slow but sure changes in the system. But government is changed after every 4 years. It is quick in sense of adapting to the changed environment that reengineering invoked. Moreover, reengineering requires risk while government always try to take policies that avoid risk. The benefits of reengineering are as follows. 1. It empowers employees. They can take decisions and they are almost autonomous. 2. It eliminates waste or unnecessary processes. 3. It reduces cost and cycle time. 4. Reengineering brings in prompt improvements. 5. Top organizations stay on top and small organizations emerge if they deploy reengineering. Features of reengineering are as follows. 1. Shared information: information is vital as it is required in decision making. 2. Functional leadership: leadership is conveyed throughout the departments. It has seen that reengineering attempts can fail from 50% to 70% of the time. 3. Reduced cost: activities that are costly with respect to its contribution is cut down. 4. Reusable technology: it asks to shift from custom developed unique information management systems to the off the shelf technologies to support business process.

5. Single infrastructure: There should be only one infrastructure through which outside world can get access to the system. 6. All information required should be provided just in time. The following 6 steps are required to approach a reengineering. This is called incremental approach. 1. Define: define objectives. Determine and follow a strategy for standardizing processes. Define a starting point. 2. Analyze: analyze processes to eliminate unnecessary processes. Identify alternate approaches. 3. Evaluate: evaluate the alternative approaches. 4. Plan: plan implementation of the preferred action by developing details in terms of cost, benefits and schedule. 5. Approve: external information from planning data which is needed to finalize the analysis. It is used by senior management to approved proceedings. 6. Execute: execution of the whole thing. Reengineering can fail inevitable for the following reasons. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.

If business processes are not focused. If all other things are ignored while focusing on business processes. If user beliefs are ignored. If the reengineering process is quit earlier. If marginal improvement is required in lieu of extensive benefits. If a process is targeted to be fixed rather than changing it.

Reading Materials Definition of BPR: You will find out the definition of BPR in this 2 page document and the terms inside of the definition are illustrated. Very efficient document if you miss what actually reengineering focuses on from the two lectures. Reengineering White Paper: A Radical Approach to Business Process Redesign: A fantastic white paper that describes the functionality of reengineering. In the previous lecture you got the overview. In this lecture, you have got the functionalities in detail. And this paper will bridge any gap if you really understand the paper thoroughly. You can only skip 6 critical success factors from government experience section.