Proposed New Course
Course Title: MIS 722 Research Seminar: Business Process Management & Innovation
Program: PhD-IM, Howe School of Technology Management
Proposed Course #: MIS 722
Catalog Description:
The course introduces PhD students to research areas surrounding the design,
implementation, and improvement of organizational processes. The process-oriented
analysis of organizations serves as a focal point for the integration of business
requirements (in form of business processes) with technology capabilities (in form of
process support systems). Research topics within the area of process innovation range
from organization theory and workplace design to control theory and the formal
representation of processes. Students will discuss seminal research papers in the
individual course modules and develop a research paper of their own on a topic related to
process innovation.
Prerequisites: None
Co-requisites: None
Cross-listing: None
Percentages for Grading: Please see attached syllabus
Credits:
3 credits
Other
For Graduate Credit toward Degree or Certificate
Yes
No
Not for Dept. Majors Other
Course’s Objective:
This course aims to introduce PhD students to the domain of organizational process
management and improvement while simultaneously exposing them to different research
methods and theories that can be applied in this area. Since process innovation lies at the
intersection of computer science, management, and information systems it is uniquely
suited as a domain for Information Management PhD students.
Mode of Delivery
Class
Online
Modules
Other
Program/Department Ownership: PhD-IM Howe School of Technology Management
When first offered: Fall 2008
Sample Syllabus: Please see attached syllabus.
Department Point of Contact: Ted Stohr & Michael zur Muehlen
Date approved by individual school and/or department curriculum committee: TBD
2
HOWE SCHOOL GRADUATE CURRICULUM COMMITTEE
New Course Proposal For: MIS 722 Research Seminar: Business Process Management
& Innovation
Date Submitted to Howe School GCC: 04/03/2008
Date Approved By Howe School GCC:
Submitted by: Michael zur Muehlen and Ted Stohr
A. OVERVIEW
This is a proposal for a new course on research surrounding process innovation.
Degree, concentration or major in which this course (these courses) will be taught.
MIS 722 will be one of the required courses in the PhD program with a concentration in
Information Management.
Indicate whether this is a new addition to the curriculum or a revision of an existing
course
This is a new course.
Indicate the role that the course(s) plays in the program (e.g., core course, an elective?)
This course is a core course for IM students. It can be taken as an elective by TM students.
B. COURSE CONTENT/DELIVERY
What is the objective of the course(s)? Write a brief vision statement for course(s) and
describe the content.
Described in the detailed syllabus in the attachment.
Describe the market for the course(s). Is there a demand for this content in industry? Is
there agreement among experts that this course will have a market?
The course integrates a domain of significant interest for IS researchers with a survey of research
methods and techniques in this context. It strengthens students’ cross-disciplinary and multimethod skills and thus prepares them for academic careers in Information Systems and related
disciplines.
Indicate how this course (these courses) fills a gap in our educational offerings.
This course supplements the existing MIS 710 Business Process Management & Innovation
course by focusing on research issues relevant to PhD students.
Indicate how the course is aligned with SOTM strategic plan and mission.
This course is aligned with the Institute’s enterprise systems strategic research area and builds
research capacity in an area crucial to the Institute and the School.
What is the proposed Pedagogy /delivery method (Traditional/Web/…?)
The course will initially be presented in a traditional classroom setting.
Faculty Course Coordinator for courses.
Ted Stohr and Michael zur Muehlen coordinate the course.
3
Faculty who will teach this course.
Ted Stohr and Michael zur Muehlen
C. IMPACT OF PROPOSED COURSE ON EXISTING PROGRAM(S)
Forecasted enrollment for this course? How many sections will be offered? When will
they be offered?
One section of this course will be offered in Fall 2008.
What evidence is there that this course (these courses) will attract new students to
SOTM?
BPM is an existing research area in the Howe School. Strengthening the teaching component at
the PhD level will make the Howe School PhD program more attractive for potential PhD
candidates in this area.
What is the relationship to other courses in the program/concentration?
This is a new course that will be a requirement in the IM PhD program. It complements MIS 710
and MIS 712 by focusing on research aspects.
What is the relationship to other courses in SOTM and other schools within Stevens?
Information Systems students are uniquely position to translate between business-driven process
objectives and the technology available to support their execution.
Course(s) superseded by proposed course(s)
None
4
Stevens Institute of Technology
Howe School of Technology Management
Syllabus
MIS 722 Research Seminar:
Business Process Innovation & Management
Semester: Fall, 2008
Day of Week/Time: Wednesday 6:15 pm
Instructors:
Ted Stohr and Michael zur Muehlen
Office Hours:
By appointment
Overview
The course introduces PhD students to research areas surrounding the design,
implementation, and improvement of organizational processes. The process-oriented
analysis of organizations serves as a focal point for the integration of business
requirements (in form of business processes) with technology capabilities (in form of
process support systems). Research topics within the area of process innovation range
from organization theory and workplace design to control theory and the formal
representation of processes. Students will discuss seminal research papers in the
individual course modules and develop a research paper of their own on a topic related to
process innovation.
Introduction to Course
Business Process Management (BPM) is the set of concepts, methods and tools
surrounding the definition, implementation, measurement and improvement of
organizational processes. Research in this area stems from disciplines as diverse as
computer science, management, and information systems. Theories such as structuration
theory and agency theory have been applied to BPM topics, and common research
methods include action research and design science. Students in this course will be
guided through a series of focal areas that all relate to process innovation, discuss seminal
research papers in these areas, and work on their own research paper on a process
management-related topic.
Major Topics of this course include
 Scientific Management and Process Thinking
 Structuration Theory and Process Design
 Coordination Theory and Process Control
 Formal Process Representations
 Reengineering and Organizational Change
 Process Organization and the Extended Enterprise
Relationship of Course to Rest of Curriculum
This is a required course for the PhD in Information Management.
Learning Goals
5
Students completing this course will be able to
 Describe different research areas that contribute to process management
 Comprehend different research methods that are useful in the BPM domain
 Apply formal techniques to the evaluation of processes
 Create a research paper
Pedagogy
A combination of lectures, discussions and presentations by students.
Text(s)
The readings for this course are articles from peer-reviewed journals and conferences,
they are listed below, organized by learning module.
Required Readings
The readings for each topic are listed below.
Additional Readings
 Buckley, P.J. and Michie, J. (Editors). Firms, Organizations, and Contracts: A
Reader in Industrial Organization. Oxford Management Readers. Oxford
University Press, 1996.
 Bunge, Mario, 2001. Philosophy in Crisis: The Need for Reconstruction,
Prometheus Books, 2001.
 Daft, R.L. Organization Theory & Design. Ninth Edition. South-Western College
Publishing. 2006
 Dennis, Pascal. Lean Production Simplified: A Plain-Language Guide to the
World's Most Powerful Production System. New York: Productivity Press, 2002.
 Fischer, Layna (ed.) Workflow Handbook Series. Future Strategies Inc.,
Lighthouse Point, Florida, 1997 - 2008.
 Fischer, Layna, Excellence in Practice: Innovation and Excellence in Workflow
and Imaging, Future Strategies Inc., Lighthouse Point, Florida, 1997 - 2007.
 Fowler, Martin and Kendall Scott. UML Distilled: A Brief Guide to the Standard
Object Modeling Language. Addison Wesley, 2000.
 Galbraith, J. Designing Organizations. Jossey-Bass Publishers (1995), 2001.
 Greenberg, J., and Baron, R.E. Behavior in Organizations. Eighth Edition.
Prentice-Hall, 2003.
 Jablonski, Stefan and Christoph Bussler, Workflow Management: Modeling
Concepts, Architecture and Implementation, London: Thompson Computer Press,
1996.
 Leymann, Frank and Dieter Roller, Production Workflow: Concepts and
Techniques. Prentice Hall, 2000.
 Oxford University Press, 1997.
 Pfeffer, J. New Directions for Organization Theory: Problems and Prospects
 Robbins, S. P.: Organization Theory: Structure, Design, and Applications, Third
Edition. Prentice-Hall, 1990.
 Shafritz, J.M., Ott, J.S., and Yong, S.J Classics of Organization Theory.. Sixth
6
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Edition. Thomson Wadsworth, 2005.
Taylor, F. W. (1911). The Principles of Scientific Management. Harper & Row,
Publishers, Inc.
Assignments
Week-to-week Assignments Continuously
Final Paper and Presentation
Student Reliability/Participation Continuously
Total
40.0%
40.0%
20.0%
100.0 %
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Weekly Course Modules
1. General Background: The Nature of work and Processes (Week 1)
A brief history of process thought and major paradigms for organizing work.
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Winter, Susan J. and S. Lynne. The Role of IT in the Transformation of Work: A
Comparison of Post-Industrial, Industrial, and Proto-Industrial Organization.
Information Systems Research, (7) 1, 1996, 5-21.
Hackman, Richard and Ruth Wageman (1995). Total quality management:
empirical, conceptual, and practical issues. Administrative Science Quarterly,
June.
Garvin, David A. The Processes of Organization and Management, Sloan
Management Review; Summer 1998; 39 4.
Womack, James P., Daniel T. Jones and Daniel Roos (1999). The Machine That
Changed the World: The Story of Lean Production. Harper Perennial.
Sachs, Patricia. Transforming Work: Collaboration, Learning and Design.
Communications of the ACM. March 1995.
2. Productivity and Work (Week 2)
What is meant by productivity? The Productivity paradox. What has been the impact of
IT on productivity? What is the impact of processes on productivity?
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Roach, S.S. (1989) America's White-collar Productivity Dilemma. Manufacturing
Engineering, August, pp. 104.
Brynjolfsson, Eric. and Lorin M. Hitt. Beyond the Productivity Paradox:
Computers are the Catalysts for Bigger Changes. Communications of the ACM.
August 1998.
Brynjolfsson, E. & Saunders, A. (2007). "Information Technology, Productivity
and Innovation". The Institute for Innovation & Information Productivity. March
2007. www.iii-p.org/research/results/06-litreviewMIT.html).
Carr, Nicholas
3. Organization Theory and Process Design (Week 3)
Overview of early (but still relevant) classics on organizations and the nature of work;
the information theory approach to organizational design; why organizations exist,
transaction cost theory, impact of the Internet on firm size and structure.
Readings:
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Coase, R.H. 1937 "The Nature of the Firm," Economica, 4, 386-405.
Ouchi, William (1980) Markets, Bureaucracies and Clans. Administrative Science
Quarterly. March. pp. 129-141.
8
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Barney, J. (1991). Firm Resources and Sustained Competitive Advantage. Journal
of Management 17 1 pp.99-120.
Malone, Thomas W., JoAnne Yates, and Robert I. Benjamin, "Electronic Markets
and Electronic Hierarchies: Effects of New Information Technologies on Market
Structures and Corporate Strategies," The Communications of the ACM, 30 (June
1987), 484-497.
Gurbaxani, Whang, 1991. The impact of information systems on organizations
and markets. Communications of the ACM, 34(1): 59.
Handy, Charles (1992) Balancing Corporate Power: A New Federalist Paper.
HBR November-December.
Reference Texts:

Galbraith, Jay R., “Designing Organizations: An Executive Briefing on Strategy,
Structure and Process,” Jossey-Bass, 1995.
4. Classical Reengineering (Week 4)
Organizational transformation based on processes. Radical versus incremental
approaches to process improvement. Opportunities and limitations of BPR.
Readings:
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Michael Hammer (1990). Reengineering Work: Don't Automate, Obliterate,
Harvard Business Review. July 1.
Davenport, Thomas & Short, J. (1990). The New Industrial Engineering:
Information Technology and Business Process Redesign, in: Sloan Management
Review, Summer 1990, pp 11-27
Malone, Thomas W., et al. Tools for Inventing Organizations: Toward a
Handbook of Organizational Processes. Management Science 45(3) March 1999.
Reference Texts:
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Galbraith, Jay R., “Designing Organizations: An Executive Briefing on Strategy,
Structure and Process,” Jossey-Bass, 1995.
Morabito, J., Sack, I., and Bhate, A. Organization Modeling: Innovative
Architectures for the 21st Centur. Prentice-Hall, 1999.
5. Coordination and Control Theory (Week 5)
A major objective of good process management is to coordinate across organizational
boundaries. This section of the course covers some of the major theories of coordination
at the organizational and individual level.
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Crowston, K. (1997) A coordination Theory Approach to Organizational Process
Design, Organization Science 8 (2), 157-175
Malone, T.W. & Crowston, K. (1994) The Interdisciplinary Study of
coordination, Computing Surveys, 26 (1), 87-119
Winograd, T. & Flores, F, (1987). “Understanding Computers and Cognition - A
New Foundation for Design”, Addison Wesley Publishing Inc, Reading, USA
Eisenhardt, K.M. Control: Organizational and Economic Approaches.
Management Science, Oct. 1986.
Eisenhardt, Kathleen M. Agency Theory: An Assessment And Review. Academy
of Management. The Academy of Management Review; Jan 1989
Ouchi, William G., “A Conceptual Framework for the Design of Organizational
Control Systems”, Management Science, Vol. 25, 1979, pp. 833-848.
6. Collaborative Work (Week 6)
Contrasting Tayloristic work distribution with collaborative and participatory process
design, different underlying technology structures and systems.
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Nunamaker, Jay F. Jr., Robert O. Briggs, Daniel D. Mittleman, Douglas R. Vogel,
and Pierre A. Balthazard, Lessons for a Dozen years of Group Support Systems
Research: A Discussion of Lab and Field Findings, Journal of Management
Information Systems, 13 (3), 1997, pp. 163-207.
Schmidt, Kjeld. Of maps and scripts: The status of formal constructs in
cooperative work. Proceedings of the international ACM SIGGROUP conference
on Supporting group work: the integration challenge, 1997.
Suchman, L. A.: Office Procedures as Practical Action: Models of Work and
System Design. ACM Transactions on Office Information Systems, 1 (1983) 4,
pp. 320-328.
Reference Text:

An excellent practical review of synchronous GDSS is contained in:
Weatherall, Alan and Jay Nunamaker, Getting Results from Electronic
Meetings: Creative Solutions, Increased Commitment, Improved Business
Processes. St Richards Press Ltd., Chichester, England 1999 (2nd
Edition).
7. Theories of Structuration: The Nature of Work (Week 7)
The interplay between work, technology, the structure of organizations, and processes.
Readings:
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DeSanctis, Gerardine and Marshall Scott Poole. Capturing the Complexity in
Advanced Technology Use: Adaptive Structuration Theory. Organization
Science. 5(2) May 1994.
10
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Markus, Lynne M. and Daniel Robey. Information Technology and
Organizational Change: Causal Structure in Theory and Research. Management
Science. 34(5) May 1988.
Orlikowski, W. J. and D. Robey, "Information Technology and the Structuring of
Constraints", Information Systems Research, Vol. 2, No. 2, June 1991, pp. 143169.
Yates, Joanne and Wanda J. Orlikowski. Genres of Organizational
Communication: A Structurational Approach to Studying Communication and
Media. Academy of Management Review. 17(2) 1992, pp. 299-326.
Reference Text:
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Giddens, Anthony. The Constitution of Society. Outline of the Theory of
Structuration. Cambridge: Polity. 1984.
8. Business Process Maturity and Governance (Week 8)
How should process management be organized? Which governance principles are
applicable to business processes?
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Booz Allen Hamilton (2003) Process Ownership: The Overlooked Driver of
Sustained BPR Success.
Braganza, Ashley; Rob Lambert (2000) Strategic integration: developing a
Process-Governance Framework Knowledge and Process Management; Jul/Sep
2000; 7, 3.
Harter, Donald, Mayuram Krishnan and Sandra Slaughter. Effects of Process
Maturity on Quality, Cycle Time, and Effort in Software Product Development.
Management Science, 46 4 2000 , pp. 451-466.
Rosemann, Michael and Tonia de Bruin (2006). Towards a business process
management Maturity model. Queensland University of Technology.
Weitzel, Tim. (2006). Process governance and optimization for IT Reliant
Business Processes: an empirical analysis of financial processes in Germany’s
Fortune 1,000 non-banks. Proceedings of the 39th Hawaii International
Conference on System Sciences – 2006.
9. Formal Representations of Business Processes (Week 9)
How do we represent processes? How does their representation affect understanding?
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van der Aalst, W. M. P.: The Application of Petri Nets to Workflow Management.
Journal of Circuits, Systems, and Computers 8 (1998) 1, pp. 21-66.
BPMI.org, OMG: Business Process Modeling Notation Specification. Final
Adopted Specification. Object Management Group (2006), available at:
http://www.bpmn.org
11
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Petre, M.: Why looking isn't always seeing: readership skills and graphical
programming : Cognition and software development. Communications of the
ACM 38 (1995) 6, pp. 33-44.
Rosemann, M., Recker, J., Indulska, M., Green, P.: A Study of the Evolution of
the Repre-sentational Capabilities of Process Modeling Grammars. In: Dubois, E.,
Pohl, K. (eds.): Advanced Information Systems Engineering - CAiSE 2006.
Lecture Notes in Computer Science, Vol. 4001. Springer, Luxembourg, GrandDuchy of Luxembourg (2006) 447-461
Siau, K., Erickson, J., Lee, L.Y.: Theoretical vs. Practical Complexity: The Case
of UML. Journal of Database Management 16 (2005) 40-57
zur Muehlen, M.; Recker, J.: How much language is enough? Theoretical and
Practical Use of the Business Process Modeling Language. In: Proceedings of the
Conference on Advanced Information Systems Engineering – CAiSE 2008.
10. Infrastructure/Architecture (Week 10)
How do Enterprise Architecture and Business Process Management relate to each other?
Which views do we need to describe a process?
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Tang, A. Han, J. Chen, P.: A comparative analysis of architecture frameworks.
11th Asia-Pacific Software Architecture Conference, 2000, pp. 640-647.
Scheer, A. W.: The Architecture for Integrated Information Systems (ARIS).
Department of Defense Architecture Framework.
Zachman, J. A. (1987) A Framework for Information Systems Architcture. IBM
Systems Journal Vol 26 No 3.
Nenad Medvidovic, Richard N. Taylor, "A Classification and Comparison
Framework for Software Architecture Description Languages," IEEE
Transactions on Software Engineering, vol. 26, no. 1, pp. 70-93, Jan., 2000
11. Business Rules (Week 11)
Covers the architecture of rules engines, inference engines and the well-known Rete
algorithm and emerging standards for business rules standards.
Readings:
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Doyle, Shaun, Software review: Rules-based engines or statistical optimization:
The intel..., Journal of Database Management; Sep 2002; 10, 1.
Forgy, C.L. "Rete: A Fast Algorithm for the Many Pattern/Many Object Pattern
Match Problem," Artificial Intelligence (19:1) 1982, pp 17-37.
Hay, D., Healy, K.A., and Kolber, A. "GUIDE Business Rules Project Final
Report," Business Rules Group.
Huang, Wayne and Edward A. Stohr. Design and Implementation of a Business
Process Rules Engine, 2nd Annual International Conference on Design Science
Research in Information Systems and Technology (DESRIST), Pasadena CA,
2007.
12
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Seer, K. "The 2005 Business Rules Awareness Survey," Business Rules Journal
(6:8) 2005.
Steinke, Gerhard and Colleen Nikolette. Business rules as the basis of an
organization's information systems. Industrial Management + Data Systems;
2003; 103, 1/2;
Wang, Y.-W., and Hanson, E.N. "A Performance Comparison of the Rete and
TREAT Algorithms for Testing Database Rule Conditions," Eighth International
Conference on Data Engineering, IEEE Computer Society, 1992, pp. 88 - 97.
Reference Text:
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Morgan, Tony (2002). Business Rules and Information Systems: Aligning IT with
Business Goals. Addison-Wesley.
12. Processes – Risk and Control (Week 12)
Covers the relationship between process management, governance, risk, and compliance.
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Neiger, Dina; Churilov, Leonid; zur Muehlen, Michael; Rosemann, Michael:
“Integrating Risks in Business Process Models with Value-Focused Process
Engineering”, In: Proceedings of the European Conference on Information
Systems 2005.
Kamp, Gerrit and Michael zur Muehlen (2007). Compliance by Design:
Managing Business Process Compliance through Internal Control Patterns.
Working Paper, Howe School of Technology Management, Stevens Institute of
Technology.
Kliem, R.L. "Risk Management for Business Process Reengineering Projects,"
Information Systems Management (17:4) 2000, pp 71-73.
zur Muehlen, Michael; Rosemann, Michael: Integrating Risks in Business Process
Models. In: Proceedings of the 2005 Australasian Conference on Information
Systems (ACIS 2005), Manly, Sydney, Australia, November 30-December 2,
2005.
13. Organizational Modeling/Design (Week 13)
The use of ontologies to describe organization models.
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Wand, Yair and Carson Woo, Ontology-Based Rules for Object-Oriented
Enterprise Modeling, University of British Columbia.
Wand, Yair and Carson Woo, and Samson Hui, Developing Business Models to
Support Information System Evolution, Proceedings of the Ninth Workshop on
Information Technologies and Systems (WITS’99), December 11-12, 1999,
Charlotte, North Carolina), pp.137-142.
Wand, Yair, Carson Woo, and Samson Hu, Linking Information Systems
Architecture to the Business Model, Working paper 99-MIS-005, Faculty of
Commerce and Business Administration, University of British Columbia, 1999.
13
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Wand, Yair, Carson Woo, and Darrell Jun, Object-Oriented Modeling: From
Enterprise Model to Logical Design, Proceedings of the Tenth Annual Workshop
on Information Technologies and Systems (WITS'00), December 9-10, 2000,
Brisbane, Australia), pp.25-30.
14. Summary/Review of Student Work (Week 14)
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