Presenting: An Integrated Data, Systems, and Process Reengineering Case Study (with a happy ending) by Peter Aiken & Bill Girling

Site Contents

From here you may jump straight to the data reengineering case study (this is a more detailed version of the account that appeared in the May 26, 1997 issue of InformationWeek), the project Decision Analysis, the Auditor of Public Accounts Special Report (we are framing the report because it states that the project is "proceeding as scheduled and within budget"!), read the abstract of or download a paper describing the integration of business process reengineering (BPR) and systems reengineering (SR), and as it evolves - uncovering PeopleSoft metadata - stay tuned!

Introduction

"In the Fall 1994 issue of the CALS/Enterprise Integration Journal, Oracle Corporation ran an advertisement. (It is coincident that Oracle provided the RDBMS maintaining the project data.) Over the caption "Can you remember why reengineering was such a good idea in the first place?" it showed a photograph of an individual sitting on a bench-alone. An overcoat is draped to one side and a paper cup sits on the other side. The individual's head rests face down on a pair of hands with intertwined fingers - a worried posture. The implication is that the head-hanging individual is apparently attempting to determine where the reengineering project had gone wrong and how to get it back on track. Oracle is advertising its reengineering capabilities and has apparently decided the 'fix the reengineering projects gone astray business' is a good one to pursue" (from Chapter 21 "Reengineering's Indeterminate Results" of Data Reverse Engineering).

Happily, this situation is one where neither of us feel that we need to hang our heads. Instead, the project project represents an innovative business-academic partnership where our approach to reengineering has resulted in the synergies required to make the project a success. "The term 'synergistic dependence' describes situations where the overall reengineering effort is dependent on synergies resulting from successful integration of business process reengineering and system reengineering. The noun synergy is defined as 'the interaction of two or more agents or forces so that their combined effect is greater than the sum of their individual effect' by the American Heritage English Dictionary. The term synergistic dependence illustrates both the interdependency between BPR and SR efforts, as well as their mutual dependence on IT in order to successfully to achieve greater-than-incremental change. Situations are defined as synergistically dependent if they require successful integration of both BPR and SR in order to be economically feasible" (excerpted from Synergistic Dependence - a paper describing this combined approach to reengineering that is available for downloading).

At this site we present some of the very tangible benefits accruing to the general reengineering project by performing selected business process and systems reverse engineering analyses. The project benefits include: a better understanding of the existing sources and uses of the system data; better documentation of the existing system; and a template to build on for such tasks as data migration and process reengineering. In addition, we've assembled some materials describing how ISRI has participated in the project project - an academic-public sector partnership.

Decision Analysis Context

The decision analysis was an attempt by Bill Girling to articulate the rationale behind the project implementation strategy. It represents his opinion as documented as part of his Masters of Science (IS Concentration) program at Virginia Commonwealth University's School of Business - Department of Information Systems. The decision analysis is presented as follows:

Data Reengineering Case Study