Michael Hammer
(how to overcome structure inertia problem)
Reengineering triggers changes of many kinds, not just of the business process itself. Job designs, organizational structures, management systems – anything associated with the process must be refashioned in an integrated manner.
Mutual Benefit Life – case manager. (Making a new job position)
Reengineering – notion of discontinuous thinking of recognizing and breaking away from the outdated rules and assumptions that underlie operations.
Reengineering requires looking at the fundamental processes of the business from a cross-functional perspective.
Why did we design inefficient processes? In a way, we didn’t. many of our procedures were not designed at all; they just happened.
What benefits of ICT innovation:
1. increased in productivity and efficiency, cutting down middle management (massive data loads transaction, computerization, may gain cost leadership (Porter’s value chain))
2. improved management and decision making (the use of CSCW – computer supported collaborative work), by the troubleshooting company; to use computer to collaborate ideas and share the accumulated knowledge on reported cases. 替换旧方式 – based on experience ( personal ) tacit knowledge to troubleshoot (rely on good engineering knowledge)
3. enhanced business competitiveness (porter’s five force model)
4. new business products and services
5. improved work arrangements and new possibilities in delivering public services (e-government)
– However, investment in IT may not lead to increased productivity (productivity paradox, lag between investment in IT and the occurrence of the results, mismanagement, misuse of IS resources) but It may maintain or increase its competitiveness or create surplus value to customers.
– Implementation of IT may not caused business to success, should considered as a significant factor for competitive advantage, rather than the cause of it.
– Organisational change:
1. planned change – michael porter’s five force (value chain) model
2. planned radical change – BPR (Michael Hammer)
3. emergent, situated change – Ciborra, Orlikowski: perceive change as ongoing and emergent, requiring continuous management.
Organizations should expects changes to happen as their employees learn how to exploit the potential of new technologies.
System Development:
– Involves the development of various other technical components and the design of organizational changes. Organizational identification problems using SSM (Soft System Method – Peter Checkland, system thinking, system practice)
– SSM is on of the most successful efforts to systematize the investigation of systems which are not amendable to structured, mathematically defined behaviour such as human organizations.
1. SSM addresses vague problematic situations, rather than well defined “problems”
2. SSM guides analyst to consider the different points of view.
3. It suggest the analyst to search for theories relevant to the problem situation in order to design an appropriate human activity model.
4. SSM aims at reaching decisions for actions, which are systematically desirable and organizationally feasible, SSM may lead to decisions about organizational change rather or in addition to the development of an information system.
3 Different development model:
1. SDLC (system development life cycle)
– problem identification
– preliminary information requirement analysis
– feasibility study
– system analysis
– system design + programming
– implementation
– maintenance : adaptive, corrective, perfective
– evaluation ( have some concern on political (very much subjective and political (Markus).
Main advantage: simplicity, easy to understand, teach and adapt as a standard practice.
Disadvantage:
– SDLC is based on the assumption that there’s a clear specification of the system to be developed. However, organization may have very vague and often conflicting views about developing information systems.
– In many projects, the time between writing the initial spec and of the system implementation is long enough for the system to be obsolete the very first day it becomes operational.
– SDLC determines dysfunctional relationship between the system development expert and or the organization’s participant, as the latter unable to define accurate and comprehensive specs for the system they need.
2. Evolutionary model:
Assumes that IS are always changing and therefore requires continuous development, required characteristic of the system are expected to be discovered in an iterative process of development and use. Suitable for systems that are small and contain innovative elements which can’t be clearly prescribed from the beginning (eg: 4GL language)
3. Prototyping model:
Appear to provide an alternative and more flexible way of developing systems, usually accommodated within the life cycle to overcome in some cases some of its most severe rigidities. Used very frequently within SDLC to help determine requirements and overcome some of the rigidities of the model.
Approaches of Information Systems:
1. systems approach – engineering process
2. socio – technical approach (formal approach) – development process is an intervention in an organisation’s affairs (Markus and lynn)
– understand whether the development process deals primarily with the construction of a technical product or with socio – organizational changes.
– Avison + Wood Harper’s “Meta-methodology”, Multiview, claims to assist system developers to decide how the need to combine engineering methods with socio-tech analysis methods can be achieved.
– Engineering approach:
1. rigid in nature, exact, reliable, systematic.
– Socio-technical approach:
1. recognized the importance of user participation (Enid Mumford!!!!!)
2. user as a rich source of valuable information, because they have tacit knowledge of how task are being performed (daily)
3. participative decisions about new IS create commitment and acceptance of change.
– system developer able to setup fruitful collaboration
– management are able to overcome the problem of resistance.
– employees have a say and remain in control of their means of work
Disadv:
– slowdown development process
– conflicting views expressed by different user groups.
Training of ppl for their new information handling tasks is one of the most crucial factors for the success of the new system. People must feel confident about the system and satisfied with their changed work environment. so the evidence that possibility of introducing technology efficiently is significantly enhanced if the workforce at all levels has a high level of education and training.
The organization which invest in an educated workforce and ensures that education and training is continuous has advantage – in terms of adopting change – over the organizations which sees technology as an opportunity for employing a workforce with reduced skills. – C.Avgerou
Functionalistic – served as a best practice, any IS expert expected to master this standard practices. to be able to achieve organizations and rational choice.
Interpretive – the organisation’s objective mission may be vary according to people’s interpretation. (very subjective)
e.g:: what is Quality?
– Durability (Sales person P.O.V)
– Zero defects (Manufacturing P.O.V)
– Value of services encompassing a core product (marketing/cust service P.O.V)
– Situated change environment
Critical – complex forces + social processes. Not simply putting “best practices” at face value, point out that a course of action within the organization may not go according to plan as people don’t see it as desirable to their own purposes.
Intro to IS may not be seen as a tech innovation that brings out desired benefits if the participant don’t see it in the same light. IS innovation involves – power relations.
Development including:
Model: SDLC, Evolutionary, Prototype
Approach: Socio-tech, system (formal), Ad-hoc (organizational)
Methods: SSM, Implementation methods.
What is prototyping?
– explanatory – to clarify idea or features of the system
– experimental – to test new aspects of the sytem
– incremental – to build a system
Approach? How to tackle a problem
Job enlargement, rotation, enrichment, redesign, satisfaction, task structuring, multiskilling – Abraham Maslow, Frederick Herzberg.
Peter checkland – Systems thinking, systems practice.
Management of IS – CSF
DP – Nolan’s 4 stage model, identify the organisation’s level of maturity in this context, in identifying the key issues associated with further IT development. Nolan posited that the growth path could be identified primarily by analyzing the amount spent on DP (Data Processing) as a proportion of sales revenue. Thus postulating that the DP expenditure would follow a S-curve over time. The S-curve appeared to represent the learning path with respect to general use of IT within the organization.
6 stage – initiation, contagion, control, integration, data admin, maturity.
Earl – extending the single learning curve stage to number of learning curves.
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