Business Process Reengineering

An Introductory Guide
by Peter Carter Business process reengineering (often referred to by the acronym BPR) is the main way in which organizations become more efficient and modernize. Business process reengineering transforms an organization in ways that directly affect performance. The Impact Of BPR On Organizational Performance The two cornerstones of any organization are the people and the processes. If individuals are motivated and working hard, yet the business processes are cumbersome and nonessential activities remain, organizational performance will be poor. Business Process Reengineering is the key to transforming how people work. What appear to be minor changes in processes can have dramatic effects on cash flow, service delivery and customer satisfaction. Even the act of documenting business processes alone will typically improve organizational efficiency by 10%. How To Implement A BPR Project The best way to map and improve the organization's procedures is to take a top down approach, and not undertake a project in isolation. That means:

Starting with mission statements that define the purpose of the organization and describe what sets it apart from others in its sector or industry. Producing vision statements which define where the organization is going, to provide a clear picture of the desired future position. Build these into a clear business strategy thereby deriving the project objectives. Defining behaviours that will enable the organization to achieve its' aims. Producing key performance measures to track progress. Relating efficiency improvements to the culture of the organization Identifying initiatives that will improve performance.

Once these building blocks are in place, the BPR exercise can begin. Tools To Support BPR When a BPR project is undertaken across the organization, it can require managing a massive amount of information about the processes, data and systems. If you don't have an excellent tool to support BPR, the management of this information can become an impossible task. The use of a good BPR/documentation tool is vital in any BPR project. The types of attributes you should look for in BPR software are:

Graphical interface for fast documentation

"Object oriented" technology, so that changes to data (eg: job titles) only need to be made in one place, and the change automatically appears throughout all the organization's procedures and documentation.

Drag and drop facility so you can easily relate organizational and data objects to each step in the process

Customizable meta data fields, so that you can include information relating to your industry, business sector or organization in your documentation Analysis, such as swim-lanes to show visually how responsibilities in a process are transferred between different roles, or where data items or computer applications are used. Support for Value Stream mapping. CRUD or RACI reports, to provide evidence for process improvement. The ability to assess the processes against agreed international standards

Simulation software to support 'what-if' analyses during the design phase of the project to develop LEAN processes The production of word documents or web site versions of the procedures at the touch of a single button, so that the information can be easily maintained and updated. The software we use by choice is 2c8, a very comprehensive Swedish system that has been translated into English. 2c8 meets all the above requirements, and many more, and is better than any system originated in English that we have seen. Conclusion To be successful, business process reengineering projects need to be top down, taking in the complete organization, and the full end to end processes. It needs to be supported by tools that make processes easy to track and analyze.

WHY COMBINE BUSINESS PROCESS REENGINEERING WITH OBJECT ORIENTED ANALYSIS?

Advances in telecommunications coupled with new products and applications are changing the way we conduct business and perform work. Three areas are currently converging: process reengineering, information technology, and object oriented analysis. Individually, each of these areas can provide benefits to the work environment, but taken together they form a whole that goes well beyond the contribution of any single method. For example, a sophisticated on-line database might provide a means for a company to become more efficient because it makes employees more knowledgeable and therefore more responsive to customer needs. However, it is not enough to simply automate tasks or to provide better access to information. Many companies have learned the hard way that providing workers with more information does not by itself make them more productive or increase company profits. Without a coherent plan, based on a well-conceived model, the sizable investment required to create and maintain the database will not produce the desired improvements. This page describes how Business Process Reengineering (BPR), combined with the power of Object Oriented Analysis (OOA), can form an integrated, intelligence-based foundation for the

conception, representation, development, and implementation of unique workplace processes which are responsive to a company's requirement to efficiently serve their customers' needs. BPR has been formally outlined by Michael Hammer and James Champy in their influential book "Reengineering the Corporation". The works of James Rumbaugh, Grady Booch and Ivar Jacobson in their Unified Modeling Language (UML) have paralleled the innovations in BPR. However, the urgent need to integrate these powerful business technologies into one methodology has not been explored or applied until quite recently. Exciting developments are now being produced by combining BPR with the well-established procedures of OOA. The application of OOA techniques to business process reengineering provides an effective and time-saving method for rethinking and redesigning business processes, thereby improving critical measures of performance such as cost, quality, service and turn-around. More importantly, applying these integrated techniques to the reengineering process quickly leads to the discovery of solutions that can be easily understood and quickly implemented at all levels of a corporation.

THE THREE STEPS OF OOBPR

The first step of OO BPR is to ask fundamental questions about the organization, and not take anything for granted. We examine the rules and assumptions underlying the way a company or organization conducts its business. In many cases, these rules turn out to be obsolete, erroneous, or inappropriate Concept when applied this to topic a rapidly-changing below) provides business the Domain environment. Business Modeling (see

Model which quickly reveals these key aspects. The second step of OO BPR is to reinvent the business processes. We don't simply make superficial changes or tinker with what is already in place. Instead, we redesign existing structures and procedures and invent new ways to perform work. Like classical BPR, OO BPR is a process of in business development, Model. The not just a process business of business is improvement, described in enhancement, or modification. This strategy is easily followed by using the business concepts delineated the Domain reinvented process formal Business Process Map(s). In the final step, we implement the new business process, using the above Domain Model and Business Process Maps. The underlying information system is also based and clearly defined by the above models.

BUSINESS CONCEPT MODELING

All business problem domains are made of business concepts and their relationships. We use state-of-the-art tools to model these, based upon Object-Oriented Analysis with the Unified Modeling Language (OOA & UML). The key is to conduct this whole analysis in terms of business concepts, so that the resulting model is a clear, precise and powerful description of the business problem domain. This model is called the Domain Model, it reveals the most

fundamental business requirements and underlying concepts. Getting to the root of things is a classical BPR strategy, the Domain Model immediately provides that, it is greatly simplified and very effective with this Business Concept Modeling technique we offer. This Business Concept Modeling technique covers: Problem Statement, Glossary of Terms, Use Case Analysis and Class Diagrams.

FORMAL BUSINESS PROCESS MAPPING TECHNIQUES

Powerful modeling tools are now available to describe the most complex business requirements and processes. The Business Process Maps and UML Business State Diagrams. When properly used they greatly reduce the map's complexity while increasing it's powers and flexibility. We make sure all our students master these tools.

OOBPR, A REENGINEERING OF THE BPR PROCESS ITSELF!

This Business Concept Modeling technique greatly shortens the BPR process. That's because this approach is very quick at revealing the essential requirements and fundamental concepts. Traditional BPR analysts have to go through a very lengthy and strenuous process to reach the same type of results. An OOBPR project can often be completed within a few weeks, whereas a classical BPR approach would take several months. In this sense, OOBPR is a reengineering of BPR. In short, we've applied the BPR principles to the BPR process itself.

OO BPR COURSES
The powerful combination of business process reengineering and the Business Concept Modeling technique into one single methodology is a recent development our company, has been a pioneering for the last few years. We offer a five day course titled "Object-Oriented Business Process Reengineering" which promises to train anyone in a week to master this method and apply it into one's own business environment.