The strategic evaluation of candidate business process reengineering projects

The evolution from a focus on product design to one on process and product design in improving organizational competitiveness has included the development of a field of study called business process reengineering (BPR). BPR is an organizational development tool that requires a number of stages of analysis, design and implementation. The literature in the past few years has provided a number of tools and techniques to aid in BPR efforts. One area in this relatively new organizational change philosophy that has not received much attention is the selection or prioritization of a set of candidate business processes or projects that should undergo reengineering. Since business processes by definition are elements of a broader strategic system, the candidate evaluation and selection process must be strategically oriented. To aid in this evaluation process a strategic multiattribute evaluation and justification framework and methodology is presented. The methodology includes an activity based analysis and linkage of traditional (financial) and strategic considerations. The evaluation methodology may also have implications for post-implementation evaluation of BPR projects and other phases of BPR.