Enabling Role of Information Technology in BPM

Performing Requirements Determination

• Gather information on what the system should do from many sources– Users– Reports– Forms– Procedures

4.24.2

The Process of Determining Requirements

• During requirements determination, you and other analysts gather information on what the system should do from as many sources as possible: from users of the current system, from observing users, from reports, forms and procedures.

• Several characteristics of a good system analyst :1. Impertinence *) You should question everything.2. Impartiality *) Your role is to find the best solution to a business

problem or opportunity.3. Relax constrains *) Assume anything is possible and eliminate the

infeasible.4. Attention to details *) Every fact MUST fit with every other fact.5. Reframing *) You MUST challenge your self to look at the

organization in different ways.

Deliverables and Outcomes

• Types of deliverables:– Information collected from users– Existing documents and files– Computer-based information– Understanding of organizational components

• Business objective• Information needs• Rules of data processing• Key events

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Traditional Methods for Determining Requirements

• Interviewing and Listening– Gather facts, opinions and speculations– Observe body language and emotions– Guidelines

• Plan– Checklist– Appointment

• Be neutral• Listen• Seek a diverse view

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Traditional Methods for Determining Requirements

• Interviewing (Continued)– Interview Questions• Open-Ended

– No prespecified answers

• Close-Ended– Respondent is asked to choose from a set of specified

responses

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Traditional Methods for Determining Requirements

• Administering Questionnaires– More cost-effective than interviews– Choosing respondents• Should be representative of all users• Types of samples

– Convenient– Random sample– Purposeful sample– Stratified sample

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Traditional Methods for Determining Requirements

• Questionnaires– Design• Mostly closed-ended questions• Can be administered over the phone, in person or over

the Internet or company intranet– Vs. Interviews• Interviews cost more but yield more information• Questionnaires are more cost-effective• See table 4-4 for a complete comparison

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Traditional Methods for Determining Requirements

• Directly Observing Users– Serves as a good method to supplement

interviews– Often difficult to obtain unbiased data• People often work differently when being observed

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Analyzing Procedures and Other Documents

• Types of information to be discovered:– Problems with existing system– Opportunity to meet new need– Organizational direction– Names of key individuals– Values of organization– Special information processing circumstances– Rules for processing data

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Modern Methods for Determining Requirements

• Joint Application Design (JAD)– Brings together key users, managers and systems analysts– Purpose: collect system requirements simultaneously from

key people– Conducted off-site

• Prototyping– Repetitive process– Rudimentary version of system is built– Replaces or augments SDLC– Goal: to develop concrete specifications for ultimate

system

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Joint Application Design (JAD)

• Participants– Session Leader– Users– Managers– Sponsor– Systems Analysts– Scribe– IS Staff

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Joint Application Design (JAD)

• End Result– Documentation detailing existing system– Features of proposed system

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Prototyping• Quickly converts requirements to working version

of system• Once the user sees requirements converted to

system, will ask for modifications or will generate additional requests

• Most useful when:– User requests are not clear– Few users are involved in the system– Designs are complex and require concrete form– History of communication problems between analysts

and users– Tools are readily available to build prototype

Prototyping

• Drawbacks– Tendency to avoid formal documentation– Difficult to adapt to more general user audience– Sharing data with other systems is often not

considered– Systems Development Life Cycle (SDLC) checks are

often bypassed

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Business Process Reengineering (BPR)

• Search for and implementation of radical change in business processes to achieve breakthrough improvements in products and services

• Goals– Reorganize complete flow of data in major

sections of an organization– Eliminate unnecessary steps

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Business Process Reengineering (BPR)

• Goals (Continued)– Combine steps– Become more responsive to future change

• Identification of processes to reengineer– Key business processes

• Set of activities designed to produce specific output for a particular customer or market

• Focused on customers and outcome• Same techniques are used as were used for requirements

determination

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Business Process Reengineering (BPR)

• Identify specific activities that can be improved through BPR

• Disruptive technologies– Technologies that enable the breaking of long-

held business rules that inhibit organizations from making radical business changes

– See Table 4-6

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Business capabilities may be

• inherent in people/process only (manual)– very few left these days

• provided by fully automated systems– not too common in most industries

• produced by a collaboration between people and technology in technology-enabled processes– create more efficient and effective processes– enable innovation through better access to

information, enhanced productivity or by acquisition by purchasing technology solutions

Role of Information Technology

Information technology can either enable or constrain successful implementation of business process improvement. It can enable the organisation to do business process more efficiently. It can also inhibit the organisation if the IT infrastructure is inadequate or inflexible. Process improvement before introducing the relevant IT infrastructure

Seven principles of BPR• Organise around results and outcome, not task• Have those who use the output of the process perform the

process• Subsume information-processing work into the real work

that produces the information• Treat geographically dispersed resources as though they

were centralised• Link parrallel activities instaed of integrating their result• Put decision point where the work is performed, and build

control into the process• Capture information once and at the source

Six Key Design Principles• Service quality: customer service guide the BPR design• Workflow: managing the flow of work though a series

of steps• Workspace: addresses the ergonomic factors and

layout options• Continuous improvement: BPR must be a continuous

process.• Workforce: workflow requires manpower as an

integral part of it.• Information technology: view It as an enabling option

to improve the value added workflow.

Role of information technology

• Enabler because it foster the BPR process• Inhibitor if IT infrastructure is inadequate or

inflexible i.e if the workflow is static and you introduce IT to automate the process, then the economic benefits is likely to be minimal.

• Identify what IT infrastructure must change before your process improves?

Capability of IT Impact on organisation

Transactional Transform unstructure process intor standard transactions

Geographical Make business process independent of location by transfering information with ease across longdistance

Automation Reduce human labour in certain process

Informational Brings detailed volumes of information into the business process

Analytical Bring complex analytical methods to bear on a process

Sequential Allows changes in the sequence of tasks in progress allowing multiple tasking simultaneously

Knowledge management Allows the captures and disemination of knowledge and expertise to improve the process

Tracking Allows detailed trackingof status, input and output

Reduction of intermediaries

Connects two parties within a process with out an intermediary

Examples of IT Enabler

• Old rule: information can appear only in one place at a time

• Disruptive technology: shared database• New rules: information can appear

simultaneously in as many places as it is needed.

• Old rule: only expert can perform complex work

• Disruptive technology: expert systems• New rule: generalist can do the work

• Old rule: business must decide to centralise of decentralise

• Disruptive technology: telecommunication networks

• New rule: business can benefit from both

• Ole rule: field personnel need office to receive, store, retrieve and transmit information

• Disruptive technology: wireless data communication and portable computers

• New rule: they can send/ receive information anywhere

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• Proliferation of IT can lead to mismanagement.

• Introducing on status-quo process will reduce productivity

• Project may become too risk if the IT infrastructure is not properly designed.

• Technology does not influence the way people work but people, process and technology influence one another

Summary

• Interviews– Open-ended and close-ended questions– Preparation is key

• Questionnaires– Must be carefully designed– Can contain close-ended as well as open-ended

questions

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Summary

• Other means of gathering requirements– Observing workers– Analyzing business documents

• Joint Application Design (JAD)• Prototyping• Business Process Reengineering (BPR)– Disruptive technologies

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