Reengineering an Information System: A Case Study in Risk Reduction

Business-process reengineering (BPR), like computer information systems development (ISD), deals primarily with process and contains only weak facilities for addressing structure and culture. Manufacturing and ISD have strong roots in the functionalist traditions of natural science, and in a cultural environment their engineering stance deals poorly with obstacles to change. While the structured, or “hard,” engineering approaches have given rise to successful developments, they have not always proved effective. In ISD, the hard engineering methods have a tendency to redefine information systems problems as problems of technical development, and similarly in engineering contexts, BPR risks becoming too focused on technical processes. However, failure to gain commitment and a sense of ownership in new processes is a cause of failure in both BPR and ISD. This article explores a case study where both technical and human issues must be addressed—the extension of student record processing within a university. In this study, the BPR requirement is seen to arise from the users of the information system rather than as an imposed managerial imperative. The use of total systems intervention (TSI) and interactive planning (IP) enabled the immediate technical problems to be separated from underlying BPR requirements and from the need to gain commitment to change. Thus, unnecessary technical effort and the risks of failure from resistance to change were avoided. From the findings of this intervention, it is argued that the wider application of TSI provides a framework within which managerially perceived needs can be translated into a grassroots commitment.