Last updated: 3:30pm, 24 November 1997 1997

1. Updated Team Project and Final Deliverables Guidelines in the TeamProject page. See http://www.usc.edu/dept/ATRIUM/IOM541/IOM541-TeamProject/TeamProject.html
2. Restored link to Prof. Tom Housel's BPA lecture materials, and repaired links to missing images in BPR-06.html lecture notes.
3. Made some small changes in the name and ordering of lecture modules addressing process simulation, redesign heuristics, visualization, prototyping, and transition.
4. Class discussion tonight after the mid-term will focus exclusively on the team projects. Look for guidelines and updates at http://www.usc.edu/dept/ATRIUM/IOM541/TeamProject.html.
5. Added link and content for http://www.usc.edu/dept/ATRIUM/IOM541/BPR-05.html module
6. Added a link to Email addresses and team assignments for IOM541 students
7. Mid-term exam RESCHEDULED from 20 October 97 to 27 October 1997, due to popular demand!
8. Added assignment for 29 Sept 97
9. Added reading assignment for 6 Oct 97 (for Prof. T. Housel guest lecture)
10. Added lecture notes for Module 2 on Process Meta-Modeling
11. New office hours for TA, Karan Bhatia
12. Reading and Discussion Assignment for 15 Sept 97
13. Reading Assignment for 8 Sept 97

IOM541: 
Business Process (Re)Engineering: 
A Knowledge-Based Life Cycle Approach 
Fall 1997

Instructor:

Office Hours:

Teaching Assistant:

TA Office Hours:

Overview

• Introductions
• Course Objectives
• Books and Reading Materials
• Course Syllabus
• Exams
• Case and Project Assignments
• Grading
• Computer Lab Work
• Office Hours
• Questions

Introductions

• Who are we?
• Who am I?
• Who are you?
• Who do you work for? current job title? why did you take this course? what do you expect or want to learn from this course?

Course Objectives

• Goal: Understand what and how business processes can be radically improved, dramatically reducing process cycle time and cost, improving the quality of the process products or outcomes.
• Strategy: Emphasize challenges and opportunities for BPE/BPR across the process life cycle using Electronic Commerce (read Chapter 2) and Intranet and Extranet technologies
• Focus: Understand and apply knowledge-based concepts, techniques, and tools for BPE/BPR centered on Electronic Commerce and network information system applications.
• Tactics:
• Learn by doing: individual assignments and group projects
• Discovery and task-driven knowledge acquisition
• Individual readings, classroom discussion and presentations
• Surfing the Internet
• Overall Performance Target: Class GPA of 3.50 +/-

Books and Reading Materials

• Required Books: None. All readings accessed over the Internet via a virtual electronic book.
• Optional Books:
• Re-engineering: Blueprint for the Future, International Engineering Consortium, 1995.
• (select a book on Netscape Navigator/Communicator, or Microsoft Internet Explorer, for PC).
• G. Hansen, Automating Business Process Re-Engineering, (2nd. Edition), Prentice-Hall, 1997.
• G. Darnton and M. Darnton, Business Process Analysis, Intern. Thompson Business Press, Boston, MA, 1997.
• D. Kosiur, Understanding Electronic Commerce, Microsoft Press, Redmond, WA, 1997.
• R. Bernard, The Corporate Intranet, John Wiley and Sons, 1996.
• Readings:
• Online case studies and related materials accessed on the World Wide Web (WWW), or in-class handouts.
• Updates/revisions in course lecture notes.

Syllabus

• Overview: Business Process Life Cycle Engineering
• Introducing business process life cycle engineering and how IT can support it.
Readings (for 15 Sept 97):
• Intranets
• Extranets
• Recommended: Electronic Commerce (read Chapter 2)
• Meta-models and Knowledge Taxonomies for Business Processes
• BPR requires many types of knowledge and ways to effectively organize and retrieve them.
Readings and Discussion Assignment (for 22 Sept 97):
• One case from Netscape IDC Intranet ROI case studies
• Question 1: Can you briefly describe the case? (who, what, where, when, why, how, how much)
• Question 2: What was the business problem identified in the case?
• Question 3: How was an Intranet used to address the problem?
• Question 4: Was the ROI analysis believable or not? Why? What should be included in the analysis?
• Question 5: Can you identify one or more potential business redesign heuristics in the case?
• Business Process Elicitation and Modeling
• Most people understand core business processes tacitly, thus, we need ways to elicit, capture, and model what the processes really are.
Readings and Assignment for 29 Sept 97
• Browse, extract, link, and begin development of BPR taxonomies from BPR Cases and related materials on the Web
• Form project team to lead development of BPR taxonomies
Readings Assignment (for 6 Oct 97, guest lecturer, Prof. T. Housel):
• Handout: K.E. Stanton, Re-engineering reveals information's true value. Re-engineering: Blueprint for the Future, Intern. Engineering Consortium, 1995, pp. 90-102.
• Handout: T. Housel, A. Bell, and V. Kanevsky, Calculating the value of re-engineering at Pacific Bell, Re-engineering: Blueprint for the Future, Intern. Engineering Consortium, 1995, pp. 664-678.
• Lecture materials: Business Process Audit by T. Housel (in MS PowerPoint format)
• Business Process Analysis and Measurement
• We need different ways to assess the internal logic, feasibility, cost/ROI, and ROP/ROK of different modeled processes.
• Business Process Simulation and Process Redesign
• Tools for visual discrete-event simulation can be used to convey and intuitively understand the dynamics and bottlenecks in simulated business processes.
• There are very many heuristics and new ITs to consider and apply when redesigning business process alternatives. Thus, we also need ways to guide and focus the selection of possible redesign alternatives. In addition, we need ways to recognize which business processes are worth redesign, and which are unlikely choices for success.
• Business Process Visualization and Prototyping
• People are likely to rapidly understand business processes that they can see as pictures and movies. However, there are many ways to visualize what's in a process
• Once preferred process redesigns have been identified, people need to be involved in trying out, validating, or suggesting refinements in order to make sure the redesigned process is workable. People also need to be trained how to work within the new processes as well, and retrained on-demand when processes are improved
• Business Process Transition and Change Management
• As process designers, we need to help facilitate and offer guidance for how a business might best undertake its transition from legacy as-is processes to the newly designed to-be processes.
• IT Integration: Administration, Application Coupling, and Automated Process Execution
• Business processes can be made to operate directly on networked information systems. Business processes thus become computer-based, making them easier continuously improve.
• Handling Business Process Exception Conditions and Breakdowns
• No matter how carefully planned, things can go wrong when performing business processes. Research has identified new ways for how to rapidly diagnose and repair process failures.
• Evolving and Managing Business Process Assets
• Codified, computer-based business processes are valuable business assets that can be patented, distributed globally, tailored, and reused. We need to know how to best manage this new class of business information assets.
• Advanced Topics
• Process-driven intranets (PDIs) represent an emerging opportunity for virtual enterprises that must support global operations, products, and services.

Exams

• One mid-semester exam (20% grade): REVISED Target date, 27 Oct 97!!!

Class Assignments

• Case Analyses and related class assignments (20% grade)
• Team Project (40% grade)

Grading

• Mid-semester Exam (20% grade),
• Class Assignments and Presentations (20% grade)
• Team Project and Presentation (40% grade)
• Class Participation (20%)

Computer Lab Work

• You will submit all case and project work in HTML electronically.
• You may use either (a) home computer, (b) computer at work, or (c) Keck Center PCs to do you case and project work (plus designated reading assignments) as long as they can access the Internet using a WWW browser such as Netscape Navigator or Mosaic. Case and project work content can be created with any software editors or word processing packages (e.g., Microsoft Word 6.x with Internet Assistant).

Office Hours

• Dr. Scacchi: 4:30-5:30pm Monday, ACCT-304. AND BY APPOINTMENT.
• TA: Karan Bhatia: 5:00-7:00pm, Fridays AND BY APPOINTMENT.

Questions?

• What else should we discuss before the break?

This interactive presentation page is maintained by Walt Scacchi who can be reached at the e-mail address noted above. This page was last updated at 3:30pm 24 November 1997.