IV.

Reengineering Methodology Overview

There is both a process of reengineering and a methodology that are vital to making
reengineering change efforts work. The
process guides how an organization:

(a) selects the targets for reengineering

(b) creates and communicates the vision for change
(c) redesigns and validates the new process
(d) transitions from the old ways to the new and
(e) implements and improves the new process.

There are also very distinct methodologies behind BPR that usually involve a linked
three pronged approach consisting of:

(a) Process Mapping -- The flow charting and baselining (cost and cycle time
measurement) of how an organization currently
delivers services and products as a process (often called the internal scan). This phase
also may detail current use of
technologies in what is termed a technology assessment.

(b) Customer/Stakeholder Assessments -- The evaluation of customer current needs

and market future expectations through
focus groups, possibly surveys or meetings with consumers to determine product and
service requirements and needs. Another
aspect is to do Benchmarking -- that is examining Best Practices of other public and
privates sector organizations as potential
models for change. Together these make up the external scan phase.

(c) Process Visioning -- The rethinking of how work processes ought to work and
generation of new models for innovation
and radical improvement. The new models should come together as part of the final
redesign phase.

Of course, different organizations will tackle different process reengineering projects in

different ways. But Reengineering is
very specific about what has to happen. Each of the major phases is discussed in the
brief sections that follow:

Redesign -- The Methodology?

Reengineering analysis is usually carried out by some group of individuals chosen
specifically to pursue process innovation or
reengineering. These teams document, chart, and analyze existing process, explore
ideal models or new visions of processes,
oversee customer surveys, and redesign core processes or new process innovations.
Once a team has been selected and given
a process to redesign, they must chose some type of measurement approach. Process
reengineering requires considerable
information-- both to analyze proposed design changes and to validate that the changes
work.

The core of the reengineering apple, so to speak, is the methodology that produces the
redesign. Earlier in the primer, three
methodologies were referred to:

(a) Internal Scan focusing on Baseline Metrics, Process Mapping, and Technology
Assessments -- that comprehensively
document how the organization currently delivers services and products to customers;

(b) External Scan focusing on Customer Assessments that evaluate customer current
needs and future market expectations and
examine other corporate and agency best practices;

(c) Redesign Modeling that focuses on Process Visioning -- rethinking how work
processes ought to work and creating new
models for the future;

Separate chapters could easily be devoted to each of the constructs involved in these
three methodologies. This review will
only outline some of the key steps that the reengineering team followed.

Process Mapping -- What's wrong with how its done now?

There are a variety of techniques that can be used to review how the organization
works now such as Activity-based costing,
Value-added Assessments. But the team started with a basic documentation step called
process mapping. Process mapping is
little more than horizontal flow charting -- tracking what work activities are
performed, by whom, when, and what decisions
are made in delivering the final product or service to a customer. The purpose is
always related to the objective of showing
how work gets done in an organization. The vantage point is the customer's; so when
work crosses organizational boundaries
(commonly referred to as hand-offs or linkage of process) this must be clearly
identified.

In many cases, a major dimension of the process map is its metrics or completion time
and productivity measurements.
Process maps can be developed to provide data or estimates of quality rate -- accuracy
or reject rates of output, cycle time --
how long the process takes from start to finish; productivity -- how long each it takes
to accomplish a work task; cost -- levels
of labor and capital used in completing work tasks.

But, much of the data needed for this more extensive analysis simply wasn't available.
(Indeed, reengineering consultants
provide a strong note of caution before starting process mapping. The purpose is to
get a better understanding of where the
current limitations, problems, barriers are in the process in order to change it.
Extensive documentation and complex
measurements should be kept to a minimum or in other words, don't turn process
mapping into an archaeological excavation.
The reengineering team will normally map out the key subprocesses; devoting most of
their effort to those activities that use the
most resources or take the longest time to complete.) This was done, and another part
of the team tackled the issue of baseline
metrics separately.

In conducting baseline metrics, the team chose sample courses, developed cost
breakdowns and estimates, tracked student
registration figures, analyzed existing student evaluation data, and tried to provide
appropriate information that could be used
as a baseline for cost, quality, market share, customer satisfaction, and return on
investment.

Customer Assessments via Focus Groups-- What's value-added?

Of critical importance is a detailed analysis of how customers needs are changing. This
can be done informally with meetings or
visits. But increasingly reengineering teams are turning to more formal methods such
as customer satisfaction and expectation
surveys or focus groups. Whether informal or formal, the goal is to produce a detailed
assessment of the customer's
environment that can be translated into product and service design and delivery that
will exceed customer expectations and
future market needs.

The team spent considerable time designing focus group questions and then conducted
8 different focus groups to target
groups to get a range of perspectives. During the external scan review session, the
team rank order the focus group results into
two priority lists of attributes -- current issues and future desirables.

The imperatives of BPR are to

1.evaluate core business activities
2.consider business processes cross-functionally
3.re-design radically, don't just tinker
4.aim for sharp improvements in performance levels