Business Re-Engineering/ Areas Analysis / Requirements Capturing and Assessment

Business reengineering is one aspect of the cycle of enterprise change, and also includes Enterprise Engineering Assessment and Strategic Visioning. Although business reengineering can be initiated independently of other activities, it optimally begins with an Enterprise Engineering Assessment. This is a high-level and fast-paced assessment of the various business components of the enterprise. Its purpose is to take a "snapshot" of the condition of the business, assessing the strengths and weaknesses of the enterprise and identifying opportunities for change. Enterprise Engineering Assessments looks at many aspects of the enterprise including operations, culture and infrastructure, technology and technology infrastructure, and physical facilities. The results of an Enterprise Engineering Assessment are recommendations for change initiatives within the enterprise. These initiatives may lead the enterprise in any of a number of directions, depending on the needs that are identified.

Enterprise Engineering Assessment forms a logical springboard to Strategic Visioning, as it frequently points out that the enterprise’s vision is not sufficiently robust to carry the enterprise into the future and encompass the dramatic changes that are needed. Strategic Visioning is performed by the executives of the enterprise. Strategic Visioning is based on unconstrained and creative thinking -- going outside of the confines of the current business structure to determine not what the enterprise does today, but what it should do in the future. The objective of Strategic Visioning is to develop executive management’s vision for the future enterprise, using the core competencies of the enterprise as building blocks to achieve new goals, objectives, and performance levels. The result is a strategic vision statement, a business strategy to achieve the vision, a technology strategy to support and enable the business strategy, and a definition of prioritized change initiatives.

Business reengineering is a primary change initiative resulting from an Enterprise Engineering Assessment and/or Strategic Visioning. It is the way in which an enterprise dramatically improves performance and customer satisfaction by reinventing the enterprises’ business processes and other operational aspects, culture, social systems, and technology. Business reengineering is about change, but it is also about balance -- balancing customer needs and operational performance to achieve business goals and objectives. It is initiated by an executive vision, directive, or concept, not with detailed specifications. It is a venture into the future and, most frequently, the shape of that future is unknown at the time it begins. It is understood that the organization must change dramatically to achieve drastic improvements in performance and customer satisfaction. How these improvements will be achieved remains to be defined through the reengineering effort.

Business reengineering is often divided into two distinct phases -- design and implementation. Business Reengineering Design is the front end of the reengineering effort, encompassing positioning of the project, an assessment of the current state, and reengineering the value streams of the enterprise. It incorporates managerial, operational, social, and technological change. Business Reengineering Implementation is the back end of the reengineering effort. It is the process in which piloting is accomplished, transition plans are developed, and change is implemented, monitored, and measured.

Process Flow
The following diagram depicts the dependency relationships between the stages in the Business Reengineering Process template.