Attinger, Monique L. Workflow: a terminology primer.Records
Management Quarterly (ARMA) 30, no.3 (July 1996): 3-8.(BPR196).
The author attempts to define the concept of automated workflow. She discusses the historical
context and tries to show which types of institutions should be able to implement workflow
strategies involving technology.
Buchanan, David A. The limitations and opportunities of business process
reengineering in a politicized organizational climate.Human
Relations 50, no.1 (January 1997): 51+.
Business process reengineering approaches create problems of organizational change and process
management.
The DoD enterprise model: strategic activity and data model.
Washington: Office of the Secretary of Defense, 1994. [Various pagination]. (Shelved at
T58.64.D64 1994).
This is a plan of action for managers at the DoD. The Enterprise Model is the basis for their
implementation of business process reengineering. They want the Enterprise Model to be used for
direction and a better understanding of what the DoD is trying to accomplish. It calls for the
creation of value chains, end-to-end vital mission-critical core processes and essential support
processes which start with mission needs and performance measures, and end with products and
services delivered to primary consumers. If costs exceed benefits, process owners reengineer their
processes for economy and efficiency.
Edwards, David. Why businesses are failing to maximize the full potential of
workflow ... and what can be done about it.Information Management &
Technology 30, no.1 (1997): 28.
The best way to ensure that workflow systems realize their full potential is to carry out a BPR
program to lead the system implementation. Such a BPR program should redesign business
processes, provide for organizational change, and implement workflow technology.
Ettlie, John E. and Ernesto M. Reza. Organizational integration and process
innovation.Academy of Management Journal 35, no.4 (October
1992): 795+.
The authors suggest that process innovation should be considered an opportunity to significantly
restructure the organization. This innovation need not be restricted to the technological core of an
organization. New integrating mechanisms should be tracked to make sure that initiatives are
being orchestrated for top results.
Fischer, Layna. New tools for new times: the workflow paradigm - the impact
of information technology on business process reengineering. 2d ed. Lighthouse
Point, FL: Future Strategies, 1995. 347 pp. (Shelved at HD58.8W677 1995).
Reengineered, expanded and revised, and building on the best-seller status of the first edition, this
important anthology by leading experts in their fields, is still the only book of its kind to offer a
comprehensive guide to the workflow industry. It addresses the issues of process reengineering
and workflow methodologies and implementation.
Flores, Ferando. Offering new principles for a shifting business
world. Belmont, CA: Business Design Associates, 1991.
This book focusses on business processes in terms of coordination, not work flows. The author
proposes the view that the fundamentals of human life are the coordination of processes through
language. This process coordination underlies the principles of transaction-cost economics which
addresses the issues of which processes should be handled internally (coordination costs) and
which should be outsourced (transaction costs). Flores suggests that coordination and transaction
costs are the basis of organizational operation.
Furey, T. R. A six step guide to process reengineering.Planning
Review 21, no.2 (March-April 1993): 20-23.
This simple six-step model provides the necessary disciplined approach to process reengineering
by showing how to use a variety of management tools including total quality management,
benchmarking, and customer-satisfaction measurement.
Galloway, Dianne. Mapping work processes. Milwaukee, WI:
ASQC Quality Press, 1994. vii, 89 pp. (Shelved at T60.8.G35 1994).
1/98 version: The author demonstrates here step-by-step method for getting what is known by
people about their work onto paper in a way that can be quickly learned, is appealing and
energizing, and results in a usable product. Inspired by flowcharting, author Galloway calls her
method "mapping" and considers it a more direct and simple form of documenting work
sequences.
Grover, Varun and William J. Kettinger. The impacts of business process on
organizational performance.Journal of Management Information
Systems 14, no.1 (1997): 9-12.
This introduction to a special feature on business process change (BPC) and its impact on
organizational performance notes that the articles examine 1) the transformation of physical
processes to virtual processes; 2) the reinvention of organizational control describing the four
states of evolution of controls systems ranging from automated control to humanistic control with
a suggestion for a risk-management approach to the assessment of control systems; 3) the efficacy
of empowerment and teams showing the extent autonomous teamwork in organizations with high
capacities for learning and a high level of cultural readiness results in greater improvements in
process outcomes; 4) the balance or fit of change in order to outperform organizations changed in
an unbalanced way; and 5) the facilitators of and inhibitors to major change initiatives. The guest
editors conclude that successful change requires "considerations of virtualization of physical
processes, careful redesign of organizational control to manage the changed contest, creation of
learning-friendly environments, a balance between aspirations and the conduct of change, and
recognition that change is complex, interdependent, and should not be promoted by a group with
parochial interests".
Harrington, H. James. Business process improvement: the breakthrough
strategy for total quality, productivity, and competitiveness. New York:
McGraw-Hill, 1991. 274 pp. (Shelved at TS156.H338 1991).
The realization that business processes are the key to error-free performance was the important
quality breakthrough in the 1980s, according to the author.
Information management performance measures: developing performance
measures
and management controls for migration systems, data standards, and process
improvement. Washington: National Academy of Public Administration for the
Department of Defense, 1996. xvi, 67 pp. (BPR227; also shelved at JK468.A8I5 1996 and
accessible on the web at http://www.dtic.dla.mil/c3i/bprcd/5538.htm).
Performance measurement is now recognized as a strategic foundation to help reach
organizational goals. The Government Performance and Results Act of 1993 set guidelines for
strategic planning and performance measurement across the federal government. This NAPA
study recommends that DoD respond to Congress with a performance management strategy and
action plan demonstrating top management commitment. Three areas of the automated
information systems were prioritized for performance measures and management controls:
migration systems, data standards, and process improvements.
Janz, Brian D., James C. Wetherbe, Gordon B. Davis and Raymond A. Noe.
Reengineering the systems development process: the link between autonomous teams and
business process outcomes.Journal of Management Information
Systems 14, no.1 (1997): 41-68.
Autonomous teams are referred to in the literature as self-managed teams, empowered work
groups, or self-directed work teams. These teams as groups of workers, who self-regulate work
on interdependent tasks, typically have a variety of skills which they can apply to a meaningful,
whole task while controlling work methods, managing processes, scheduling tasks, and assigning
group members. Compensation and feedback are based in part on the performance of the group as
a whole rather than that of the individual. Managers become coaches to the teams.
Keen, Peter G. W. The process edge: creating value where it
counts. Boston: Harvard Business School, 1997. xvii, 185 pp.
Using the economic model he developed, Keen shows the manager-reader how to prioritize
processes. The reader can determine the real cost and value of process improvement using tools
provided for applying the model. Only those processes important to the organization need to be
improved.
Palmer, Nathaniel. The future of workflow.Inform
11, no.3 (March 1997): 20-25.
This article looks at how vendors and users will work together in the workflow environment to
manage processes.
Process management and improvement. Washington: Defense
Department, 1994. 14 pp. (Accessible at http://www.dtic.dla.mil/c3i/bprcd/3003s2.htm).
Traditional hierarchically-controlled organizations served the needs of an industrial age enterprise;
a new model is needed for information-age organizations. This selection offers an overview of
process and project management principles and methodologies before describing a number of
DOD process improvement initiatives.
Reid, Leigh. Continuous improvement through process management: it's not enough
to tell your employees to work harder and smarter, you have to show them how to
improve.Management Accounting 74, no.3 (September 1992):
37-50. (BPR198).
In the search for a structured, systematic approvement to improvement, this author reminds the
reader of the need to make sure that processes are defined, controlled, effective, efficient, and
adaptable. To be defined, a process must be completely documented in terms of its boundaries,
inputs, outputs, and activities. To be controlled, there must be meaningful measurements in place
and the performance of the process must be continuously monitored and evaluated. To be
effective, a process must consistently meet the requirements of the customer - it must do what it is
supposed to do. To be efficient, a process must do its job at the lowest cost of resources possible.
To be adaptable, a process must be able to respond quickly to changing customer requirements. In
concluding her fine article on process management, the author notes that experience has taught
her four primary lessons: continuous improvement requires a systematic methodology giving
people the tools to do the job; secondly, the methodology must be oriented toward improvements
that will meet customer requirements; next, every employee should hear the same message and
use the same vocabulary and tools; and, finally, the systematic methodology must create a
complete, logical, and orderly approach to improving work processes.
Rupp, R. O. and J. R. Russell. The golden rules of process redesign.Quality Process 27, no.12 (December 1994): 85-90.
Satisfying customer needs is the main reason to redraw procedures, according to the
authors.
Sheth, Amit, Dimitrios Georgakopoulos, Stef M. M. Joosten, Marek Rusinkiewicz, Walt
Scacchi, Jack Wileden and Alexander Wolf. Report from the NSF Workshop on
Workflow and Process Automation in Information Systems. UGA-CS-TR-96-003.
Athens: University of Georgia, 1996. (Shelved at HF5548.3.N2 1996. Based on NSF Workshop
on Workflow and Process Automation in Information Systems, held at the State Botanical Garden
of Georgia, Athens, Georgia, May 8-10, 1996, the workshop presentations are available
electronically at http://lsdis.cs.uga.edu/activities/).
This workshop report looks at the need to address challenging issues raised by applying workflow
management technology in information systems. One contribution of the workshop was the use of
the term "Work Activity Coordination" to refer to the emerging multi-disciplinary research field
that attempts to combine activities in related fields. The term goes beyond workflow management
and BPR to promote synergy between organizational science, methodologies, and computer
science. Report also notes that dataflow, the ability to pass data among participants, is what
determines the effectiveness of a workflow management system. Research is required to improve
integration of imaging and dataflow, to deal with the changing format or structure of data as it
makes its way through a workflow process.
Winkler, Connie. Workflow technology buries business processes in
applications.Federal Computer Week 11, no.27 (September 1,
1997): 54, 56, 72.
Network infrastructures within federal agencies are being used to build applications coupling
processes to network technology with workflow applications which track the flow of information
through a process so that people will know where the information is in that process and where it
will go next.
