6.

BPR Implementation Methodology

 Reasons for Implementation of BPR
 BPR Methodology
 Necessary attributes of BPR Methodology
 Different BPR Methodologies
 Hammer/Champy Methodoly
 Davenport Methodology
 Manganelli/Klevin Methodology
 Kodak Methodology
 Comparison of various BPR methodologies
 BPR Team Characteristics
 Key concepts of BPR
 Different Phases of BPR
 BPR Model
 BPR Methodology selection Guidelines
 Implementation of BPR
 Steps of process Reengineering
 Reasons for Implementation of BPR

Business process re-engineering (BPR) is a business management strategy, originally pioneered

in the early 1990s, focusing on the analysis and design of workflows and business processes
within an organization. BPR aimed to help organizations fundamentally rethink how they do
their work in order to improve customer service, cut operational costs, and become world-class
competitors.

(a) The importance of Business Process Reengineering in modern organization is it enables

organization improve and run efficiently and effectively in this competitive business
environment it also enhances business performance.

(b) Business Process Reengineering desire straight forward the way it works, it cycles times by
eliminating activities and tasks which are not productive and employees who perform them. It
also reduce costs in organization.

(c) Business Process Reengineering eliminates errors and rework caused by various persons.
There is reorganization by Teams which decreases the need for management layers. It makes
information flow quickly in the organization.

(d) Business Process Reengineering customer needs are made the priority of the company and
serve as business practices. Business Process Reengineering improve quality of service and
customer satisfaction in organizations.

(e) Business can make profits by changing the present process through Business Process
Reengineering and sustain competitive advantage.

(f) By using Business Process Reengineering organizations can find new business dimensions
and open up new dimension into the existing business.

(g) Business Process Reengineering boost employee productivity by reallocation of jobs and
processes combined into fewer and natural order that can be executed simultaneously by least
possible number of employees.

1
(h) Business Process Reengineering save a company which is running at a loss.

(i) Jobs and processes become flexible to enable execution according to the needs of each case,
company’s and customers need.

Before BPR can be implemented, the organizational culture has to be shaped to ensure that all
employees are convinced about its necessity and inevitability for the survival and growth of the
company. All employees also have to have a clear understanding of the concept and be well
trained, since failures of BPR in the past have been caused by people who did not know what
they were doing. In general it is difficult to suggest a systematic standard procedure for
implementing BPR, since each organization has its own unique work environment, technology
and culture. Therefore not all suggestions might be appropriate for all organizations.

Development of Process Objectives: A business process as a set of logically related tasks

performed to achieve a defined business outcome not only tasks but an integrated whole of
combined tasks forming an end-to-end business process. The most common objectives are cost
reduction, time reduction, quality improvement and improved quality of work life including
learning and empowerment. However fulfilling all of these objectives simultaneously is difficult.

Identification of Processes to be reengineered: It is the top and senior management’s task to

identify the processes to be reengineered. An approach for identification can be a high impact
approach, identifying only the most important processes. All employees involved in such
processes have to develop a clear understanding of

(a) activities and tasks involved in each process,

(b) how their tasks form a link in the process chain and

(c) how the process chain is affected by their own work.

Process charts containing sub-processes and other activities involved in the main process should
be documented as well. Still there is no need for a detailed analysis. The process’ targets can be
set by benchmarking. Targets have to be quantitative and therefore be measurable such as time,

2
cost, quality etc. but at the same time company’s capabilities have to be kept in mind. Unrealistic
targets may lead to frustration and ultimate failure of the process to reach its goals.

Measurement of existing Processes - The measurement of processes by quantifications before

and after reengineering enables the company to identify whether the reengineered process has
achieved its goals and if not, how wide the gap is. Appropriate correctives can then be taken for
further improvement. Hard facts allow a companywide communication about achievements,
reinforcing a process-oriented culture and silencing the skeptics.

Utilization of Information Technology - Generally the expertise of an Information Technology

(IT) specialist is rarely used during the reengineering process. However his contribution can add
high value to the process. Not only as a tool but also as a facilitator IT can speed up the
implementation as well as obliterate existing tasks and sub processes to bring significant
improvement. It is unlikely that a company can bring major improvements in its key business
processes without considering IT as an enabler of the reengineering process.

Design and Evaluation of Process Prototypes - Just like a product prototype has to be tested to
see whether it fulfills its desired requirements and in order to make changes without high
expenses, a process prototype should be critically examined before implemented. However
reengineering is characterized by steady improvement, therefore improvements will also have to
be made during (and after) implementation and uncertainties cannot be eliminated totally.

 Necessary attributes of BPR Methodology

Several jobs are combined into one: The feature of re-engineered process is absence of an
assembly line. The formerly distinct tasks/ jobs are combined and compressed into one. The jobs
are combined mostly based on the needs and preference of the customer. When jobs are
integrated, the chances of errors are reduced, eliminates misunderstandings, delays and
reworking are minimized.Compressing the work both horizontally and vertically reduces delays,
overhead costs and betterment of response and satisfaction of customers.

1. Value adding

3
2. Cross functionality

3. Process ownership: The work process dimension:

4. The information technology dimension:

5. Customer focus

The steps in the process are performed in a natural order straight-line sequence is avoided in the
re-engineering. Activities are performed not in artificial order but in natural order. This process
is termed as De-linearizing which allows performing of many jobs simultaneously and this
process reduces the process time and thereby delays

 Different BPR Methodologies

There are several business process reengineering methodologies out there, They highlight more ways of
reengineering business processes.

 Hammer/Champy Methodoly
 Davenport Methodology
 Manganelli/Klevin Methodology
 Kodak Methodology

i. Hammer/Champy Methodology

This methodology has been pioneered by Hammer and Champy. They observed that, most large
companies made assumptions about their goals, people and technology that were impacting the
workflow. They suggested seven principles that could be used to reengineer and help streamline
workflows, thus improving quality, time management and cost.

The 7 principles

1. Organize around outcomes, not tasks.

2. Identify all the organization’s processes and prioritize them in order of redesign urgency

3. Integrate information processing work into the real work that produces the information

4
 4. Treat geographically dispersed resources as though they were centralized

5. Link Parallel activities in the workflow instead of just integrating their results

6. Put the decision point where the work is performed, and build control into the process

7. Capture information once and at the source

Definition of BPR

Hammer and Champy (1993) have defined BPR as the fundamental rethinking and radical
redesign of business processes to achieve dramatic improvements in critical, contemporary
measures of performance, such as cost, quality, service and speed.

Key Components
 Fundamental rethinking
 Radical redesign
 Dramatic improvement
 Critical and contemporary measures of performance

Hammer and Champy suggested six phases of methodology. They are:

The phases of implementing BPR

1.Introduction into business reengineering

The first step in reengineering is to prepare and communicate the “case for action” and the vision
statement. The “case for action” is a description of the organizations’ business problem and
current situation; it presents justification for the need for change. The “vision statement”
describes how the organization is going to operate and outlines the kind of results it must
achieve. The articulation and the communication of the case for action and the vision statement
is the leader’s CEO responsibility, who should inform firstly the senior management team and
secondly the rest of the organization

2. Identification of business processes

During this phase, the most important business processes are identified and are described from a
global perspective using a set of process maps. Process maps give a picture of the work flows
through the company. The output of this phase is a number of process maps reflecting how these
high level processes interact within the company and in relation to the outside world.

3.Selection of Business processes

5
It is unrealistic to reengineer all the high level processes of an organization at the same time.
Therefore, it has to be decided which are the processes to be redesigned. According to an
organizations strategic objectives more criteria could be defined for selecting processes for
redesign, such as whether a process contributes to the organizations strategic direction or has an
impact on customers’ satisfaction.

4. Understanding of selected processes

Before proceeding to redesign, the reengineering team needs to gain a better understanding of the
existing selected processes, concerning what they do, how well or how poorly they perform and
the critical issues that govern their performance. Detailed analysis and documentation of current
processes is not within the scope of this phase. The objective is the provision of a high level view
of the process under consideration in order the team members to have the intuition and insight
required to create a totally new and superior design

5. Redesign of the selected business processes

This is the most creative phase of the methodology because new rules and new ways of work
should be invented. Imagination and inductive thinking should characterize this phase.

6. Implementation of redesigned business processes

Hammer/Champy do not talk about implementation as much about project planning. They
believe that the success of the implementation depends on whether the five preliminary phases
have been properly performed.

This statement implicitly accused managers of having focused on the wrong issues, namely that
technology in general, and more specifically information technology, has been used primarily for
automating existing work rather than using it as an enabler for making non-value adding work
obsolete.

Hammer’s claim was simple: Most of the work being done does not add any value for customers,
and this work should be removed, not accelerated through automation. Instead, companies
should reconsider their processes in order to maximize customer value, while minimizing the
consumption of resources required for delivering their product or service.

ii. Davenport methodology

Davenport puts information technology at the heart of business reengineering.

6
 Key Components
 Develop business vision and process objectives.
 Identify the business processes that should be reengineered. Davenport
advises selecting not more than 15 processes at a time. 
 Understand the functioning and performance of the selected processes. And
set up performance benchmarks for the reengineered processes. 
 Study how information technology tools and applications can be applied to the
newly designed business processes. 
 Design a functioning prototype of the new business process. Allow the team
to study the prototype and identify areas for improvement. Implement the
tested prototype across the organization. 

The Davenport and Short (1990) prescribe a five-step methodology approach to BPR. They
position IT at the heart of BPR. They recognize the existence of a recursive relationship between
IT capabilities and BPR. The following are the steps.

1. Develop a business vision and process objectives.

During this step the objectives and the business vision of an organization are defined. A business
vision implies specific objectives for process redesign such as cost reduction, time reduction,
output quality improvement, quality work life, learning and empowerment.

2. Identify the processes to be redesigned.

The most important processes are identified and prioritized according to their redesign potential.
Key business processes are identified either by identification and prioritization of all processes or
by identification of important processes. Most firms use a high impact approach that focuses on
the most important processes or those that conflict most with the business vision. Not many firms
use an exhaustive that attempts to identify all the processes within an organization and then
prioritize them in order of redesign urgency.

3. Understand and measure the existing processes.

The functionality of selected process is understood here and their performance is measured
against the specific reengineering objectives. It is important to avoid repeating the old mistakes
and provide a baseline for future improvements.

4. Identify IT levers.

: Study how information technology tools and applications can be applied to the newly designed
business processes. The aim of this step is to study the suitability of the use of IT hardware and
software for the newly designed work process.IT is a powerful tool not only for supporting

7
processes but also for creating new process design options, awareness of IT capabilities can and
should influence process design

5. Design and build a prototype for the new process.

The actual design should not be viewed as the end of the BPR. Rather, it should be viewed as a
prototype, with successive iterations. Prototypes help produce quick delivery of results when
projects are implemented, improving performance and customer satisfaction.

6. Implement the tested prototype across the organization.

In this final step, the prototype will be tested throughout the organization prior to its
implementation. Notably, this step is the most important step of all to ensure the success of the
BPR of the organization

This idea, to unbiased review a company business processes, was rapidly adopted by a huge
number of firms, which were striving for renewed competitiveness, which they had lost due to
the market entrance of foreign competitors, their inability to satisfy customer needs, and their
insufficient cost structure.

Davenport another well-known BPR theorist uses the term process innovation, which he says
encompasses the envisioning of new work strategies, the actual process design activity, and the
implementation of the change in all its complex technological, human, and organizational
dimensions

Additionally, Davenport points out the major difference between BPR and other approaches to
organization development, especially the continuous improvement or TQM movement, when he
states. Today firms must seek not fractional, but multiplicative levels of improvement 10x rather
than 10%.

Davenport blamed BPR’s negative press on the excessive power given to third-party consultants
who were primarily interested in cost savings and didn't have an emotional investment in the
company. He cited a pharmaceutical company that went through two major consulting contracts
before calling off its BPR initiative and a large telecommunications firm whose treatment of
employees as interchangeable components only succeeded at alienating the company’s brightest

8
minds. Michael Hammer and James Champy also agreed that BPR failed to manage the effect
that radical change would have on people and culture.

iii. Manganelli/Klevin methodology

Manganelli and Klein methodology only focus on those business processes that are crucial to the
strategic goals of the company and customer requirements. Manganelli and Klein (1994) argue
to only concentrate on those business processes that directly support the strategic goals of the
company and customer requirements. The manganelli and Klein methodology breaks into five
steps.

Preparation: The first asks all directly involved persons to define goals and to prepare for the
business reengineering project.

Identification: This step defines a customer-oriented process model of the organization, as well
as selects key business processes for redesign,

Vision: The third step serves to define at which performance level the processes currently deliver
and which higher level is required for the future.

Technical & social design: This step breaks into two parallel sub-steps. Technical design deals
with information technology design to support the new technology. Social design serves to
design new work environment for the people including organizational and personal development
plans.

Transformation: The fifth step is meant to implement the redesigned processes and work
environments within the organization.

iv. Kodak methodology

Developed by the international Kodak organization, the Kodak methodology is applied across all
Kodak facilities worldwide. The international Kodak organization developed a business
reengineering methodology that is being applied to Kodak facilities around the world. The
Kodak methodology breaks into five steps.

Project initiation: It is considered a key step. It covers project planning and definition of all
project administration rules and procedures.

Process mapping: This step sets the project team up, designs a comprehensive process model for
the organization and assigns process managers, who will be responsible for the redesigned
process after implementation.

9
New process design: The third step covers the redesign of selected business processes, taking
into account the potential of information technology. This step ends with the planning of a pilot
implementation of the redesigned processes.

Business transition: The fourth step is focused towards the implementation of the newly designed
processes within the organization. Part of this step is the adaptation of the organizations
infrastructure to the requirements of the newly designed processes.

Change management: The last step is being performed parallel to the first four steps. The project
team handles barriers, which crop up during the course of the business reengineering project.

Comparison of various BPR methodologies

Several studies have compared four BPR methodologies:

 Hammer/Champy,
 Davenport, PADM, and Ivar Jacobson. The study compared whether the BPR
methodologies recommend detail modeling and analysis of the as-is situation, whether
they support incremental or radical change to business processes, and whether they
suggest a review of the business prior to a BPR project. From these studies, five phases
for a BPR project have been identified;

1. Learn the processes

2. Create the business vision

3. Model and analyze the current processes

4. Model and analyze future (to-be) processes

5. Transition to a continuous improvement process effort

This wave of optimism for BPR did not last long. By 1995, the backlash hit. Professionals who
had strongly supported the use of BPR turned against it. Alongside poorly performed projects
and abuse of the concept, BPR use declined. Many of the earliest proponents blamed the hype of
the concept itself.
10
But BPR did not disappear completely. Companies never really stopped reworking the processes,
but instead labeled it differently, especially as the internet grew in prominence. In the 2000s
companies wanted to be able to offer their customers more, and BPR was a way to make it
happen. Newer BPR frameworks are different from those developed in the 1990s because
technology and the internet are now intrinsic; the infrastructures are in place. BPR was
considered the precursor to today’s BPM.

Another contemporary methodology for BPR was developed in 1999. This approach was
structured with a model gleaned from five different methodologies. This model had the following
steps:

 Prepare for BPR

 Map and analyze as-is process

 Design to-be processes

 Implement reengineered process

 Improve continuously

BPR is having a resurgence now. The objectives and the execution are different; BPR is no
longer synonymous with massive downsizing efforts, and companies are once again embracing it
for their future.

Today, Agile transformation and object-oriented BPR are used widely and successfully,
especially in developing and launching software systems. Agile transformation has many
similarities to the BPR of the 1990s, although it is not as extreme. Object-oriented BPR depends
on business process modeling, which presents your processes as a comprehensive visual to
highlight efficiencies or issues. The “objects” in this type of BPR are occurrences of information
or behavior that means something to the company, such as specific customers, invoices, work
tasks, or events. The processes are modeled with these objects, clarifying the inner workings of a
company. Then the business can either be reverse- or forward-engineered. Reverse engineering is
11
the existing business modeled as-is. The business is studied and presented. In forward
engineering, the reverse-engineered business is redesigned with new processes.

 BPR Team Characteristics

This team will form the nucleus of the BPR effort, make key decisions and recommendations,
and help communicate the details and benefits of the BPR program to the entire organization.
The determinants of an effective BPR team may be summarized as follows:

 competency of the members of the team, their motivation,

 their credibility within the organization and their creativity,

 team empowerment, training of members in process mapping and brainstorming

techniques

 effective team leadership

 proper organization of the team

 complementary skills among team members, adequate size, interchangeable

accountability, clarity of work approach, and

 specificity of goals

The most effective BPR teams include active representatives from the following work groups:
 top management,
 the business area responsible for the process being addressed,
 technology groups, finance, and
 members of all ultimate process users' groups.

Team members who are selected from each work group within the organization will affect the
outcome of the reengineered process according to their desired requirements. The BPR team
should be mixed in-depth and knowledge. For example, it may include members with the
following characteristics:

12
  Members who do not know the process at all.
 Members who know the process inside-out.

 Customers, if possible.

 Members representing affected departments.

 One or two members of the best, brightest, passionate, and committed technology
experts.

 Members from outside of the organization

In order to have an effective BPR team, it must be kept under ten players. If the organization
fails to keep the team at a manageable size, the entire process will be much more difficult to
execute efficiently and effectively. The efforts of the team must be focused on identifying
breakthrough opportunities and designing new work steps or processes that will create
quantum gains and competitive advantage.

 Key concepts of BPR

The concept of business process reengineering (BPR) is to rethink and break down existing
business processes. This allows a company to reduce costs and improve productivity through
newer, more efficient processes. It is important to remember however, that though there are
instances where this is necessary, business process reengineering is not without its
disadvantages. This makes it vital to weigh decision carefully. One of the most obvious adverse
effects of a company’s decision to reengineer is lowered employee morale. Most people are vary
of change and do not manage to adapt to it easily. This aspect needs to be kept in mind when
trying to make the decision to go through with the activity.

Business Vision and Objectives - Any BPR activity needs to begin with a clearly defined and
measurable objectives. Whether the goal is reducing costs, improving quality of product, or
increasing efficiency, the framework for what needs to be achieved has to be decided upon at the
outset, in line with the company’s vision and mission.

Identification and Slacking Processes - Once a clear goal is in mind, all processes need to be
studied and those seen as ‘slacking’ or that can be improved need to be identified. Among these,
those processes with direct impact on the company’s output or those that clash with the
13
company’s mission become part of the ‘red’ list. This clear identification makes the difference
between BPR success and failure.

Understand and Measure the Red Processes - With a list of slacking processes in hand, it is
imperative to identify how they were identified as such. Are they taking too much time to
complete? Is the quality of the outcome being compromised? Whatever the issue, each process
must be judged objectively either against industry standards or ethically obtained competitor best
practices.

Information System and Technology Capabilities - An efficient and relevant IT system is an

essential BPR enabler. Without such a system, it is not possible to keep a check on all factors
affecting the change. Before setting out on a radical BPR activity, it is vital to set in place
information systems that can deal with the magnitude of the change.

Design, Build and Test the New Prototype - Before any new product is launched, a prototype is
tested out. A failure at a testing stage should never be implemented at a larger scale. BPR
projects fail more often than not for a variety of reasons but a basic reason is the inability to
identify and accept any limitations at the testing stage. Among other factors, both the
management’s attitude towards the new way of work and the employees’ outlook towards the
change should be carefully assessed.

Adapting the Organization - Managing change brought about by BPR activities is the final effort
towards a successful project. Providing updated documentation, organizational structures,
governance models as well as updated charts of authority and responsibility leave little room for
confusion and allow a smooth transition into the new way of work.

Business process reengineering is a radical change activity that cannot be repeated if it goes
wrong the first time. It is often a high risk activity that involves monetary investment and a risk
of demotivated employees. In is essential to have buy in all the way from top management down
and it should have a broad functional scope.

 Different Phases of BPR

14
BPR involves the analysis and transformation of several major components of
a business. These include,

 Strategy
 Organization
 Process
 Technology
 Culture

BPR includes three phases; analysis phase, design phase, and

implementation phase. It is also referred to as business process redesign,
business process change management, and business transformation.

15
16
 The BPR Model
Define Business Processes - Map the current state work activities, workflows, roles and reporting
relationships, supporting technology, and business rules.

Analyze Business Processes - Identify gaps, root causes, and strategic disconnects in the context
of improving organizational effectiveness, operational efficiency and in achieving organizational
strategic objectives.

Identify and Analyze Improvement Opportunities - Identify, analyze and validate opportunities
to address the gaps and root causes identified during analysis. This step also includes identifying
and validating improvement opportunities that are forward facing often strategic transformational
opportunities that are not tethered to current state process.

Design Future State Processes - Select the improvement opportunities identified above that have
the most impact on organizational effectiveness, operational efficiency, and that will achieve
organizational strategic objectives. Make sure to select opportunities for which the organization
has the budget, time, talent, etc. to implement in the project timeframe. Create a forward-facing
future-state map that comprehends the selected opportunities.

Develop Future State Changes - Frequently overlooked and a key root cause in failed BPR
initiatives; this is where the above opportunities are operationalized before implementation. New
workflows and procedures need to be designed and communicated; new/enhanced functionality
is developed and tested. Changes and opportunities cannot be implemented until they are
operationalized.

Implement Future State Changes - Classic implementation based on dependencies among

opportunities, change management, project management and performance monitoring.

17
 BPR Methodology selection Guidelines

BPR Implementation | Business Process Reengineering

Steps
Reengineering a process focuses on redesigning a process as a whole which
includes fundamentally rethinking how the organizational work should be done
in order to achieve dramatic improvement. That’s what differentiates BPR
from process improvement which only focuses on functional or incremental
improvement. 

Reengineering might not be appropriate in all situations, especially if your

processes only require optimization and if your organization is not looking to
undergo dramatic change. In such a case, you can opt for a process
improvement technique.

Step 1: Set the vision and business goals 

This is where the senior management needs to identify the business situation;
customer expectations, competition, opportunities, etc.

18
This will make it easier to understand the need for change and create a clear
vision of where the company needs to be in the future. Then clarify the
objectives in both qualitative and quantitative terms. 

Step 2: Establish a competent team

The team you select needs to be cross-functional because expertise and
perceptions from all levels of the organization are necessary to minimize the
chances of failure. 

It should be the responsibility of the top management to have a clear vision of

the activities that need to be carried out and provide strategic direction. You
also need to have an operational manager who knows the ins and outs of the
processes. It is equally important to have the right engineers with different
expertise from various fields to make the team complete. 

At this stage, it is important to have the goals and strategies outlined properly.
You can also carry out surveys and benchmarking activities to identify
customer needs and analyze the competition.   

In this step, it’s also necessary to communicate the business case for change
and the objectives of the project to the rest of the employees. This will
encourage their feedback as well and help them get ready for what’s to
come.  

Step 3: Understand the current process

In this step, you need to select the process(es) that you will be redesigning.
Such processes that are broken, cross-functional, value-adding, have
bottlenecks or have high-impact on the organization, etc. can be prioritized. 

Once you select them, map them out using flowcharts or process maps to
analyze them thoroughly to identify the gaps, inefficiencies, blockers, etc. 

19
Business Process Flow Template (Click on the template to edit it online)
Then define the right KPIs for the processes in order to monitor that the
process has gained the desired effect once you implement them. 

Step 4: Redesign the process

Keeping your vision in mind, redesign a new process that effectively
overcomes the inefficiencies of the previous process. Here you will create a
future-state map that highlights the solutions you have identified for the issues
of the current state process. 

20
Background Check Process Flow (Click on the template to edit it online)

Step 5: Implement the reengineered process

Once the process has been redesigned, you can run a small test to see how it
works by monitoring with the KPIs you have defined earlier. This will allow you
to make necessary adjustments to the process before implementing it

21
company-wide. If the new process works better than the current one, you can
implement it on a larger scale.

22