OKIS Lecture 1

Management > Organisational Knowledge and Information Systems > What is BPR? > IT enables and drives > WHY, WHAT, WHEN

Using WHY to get to WHAT

BPR strips away any irrelevance, getting to the root of any issues and assumptions, by asking "why?" as many times as possible (similar to the Japanese problem-solving strategy of asking "why?" five times)

Problems and BPR solutions can be represented diagrammatically (using pretty pictures), which can help aid lateral thinking, as images enable people to think in a less linear fashion

BPR also helps manage expectations, as it removes some uncertainty from situations, due to the improvement of Knowledge Management.

The WHAT of BPR and WHEN to use them

Techniques of BPR include:

• Management - multidisciplinary teams, Interviews, Mediated workshops, Allow free-thinking, Brain-storming, Lateral thinking.
• Information Systems - Functional decomposition, Data Analysis, Process flow, Data flow.

Firms can use these techniques when they are in trouble, or can see trouble coming.