IT-enabled process redesign: Using communication flow optimization theory in an information intensive environment

How a process is presented can be crucial to the success of any redesign project. Modeling techniques have always played a major role in implementing new systems and redesign projects, and the understanding of the processes through an appropriate modeling technique has been seen by researchers to be one of the key components of a successful project. While historically most information systems theorists and practitioners of business reengineering and redesign have greatly emphasized the chronological flow of activities to model processes, this emphasis is clearly inconsistent with the fact we live in an information-based economy and information is primarily what flows within the different functional units of organizations. Thus, the current focus of business process redesign approaches should be based on information and communication flow rather than activity flow. This focus should grant the designers a richer sense and better understanding of the current processes and affect the outcome of the project. This study argued that a successful modeling approach in an information intensive environment should have an emphasis on communication flow rather than activity flow. This was formalized by developing a set of hypotheses utilizing the communication flow optimization theory and evaluating them by performing an experiment using 210 subjects.; The examination of the results of the survey instrument and the outcome of the experimental task indicated some similarities with the previous research. The results of analysis of variance for five out of eight hypotheses were found to be statistically significant. According to this study, the subjects' perception, when using the communication flow approach, as compared to an activity flow approach, was 6.5% higher with regards to the completeness of the model; 9.3% higher relating to visualization of process changes; 5.9% higher in the identification of opportunities of improvement; 11.8% higher when creating an information technology solution; and, 8.7% higher when producing a successful design. In addition, this study suggested that the final outcome of the business process redesign project, when utilizing the communication flow, had a 6.9% higher success rate than the activity flow approach.