Revised: August 18, 2014
Stevens Institute of Technology
Howe School of Technology Management
Syllabus
MIS 710 A
Process Innovation & Management
Fall 2014
Edward A. Stohr
Babbio 428
Tel: 201-216-8915
Fax: 201-216-5385
estohr@stevens.edu
Tuesdays 6:15 pm
Babbio 304
Office Hours:
Tue 5:30 and 9:00 pm
Also by appointment
Course & Web Address:
BC 310 http://www.stevens.edu/moodle
Overview
The focus of this course is on business transformation and the role of information
technology (IT) as both an enabler and a driver of change.
Many significant organizational changes in recent years have been based on the
incorporation and integration of IT throughout various levels of the organization. This has
led to new forms of work, transformed customer/supplier relations, and communications,
All of these phenomena have had a significant effect on an organization’s effectiveness.
This course examines these issues primarily from both organizational and process
perspectives.
The course first considers processes at a strategic, organizational level. This is followed
by topics involving the logical design of processes. Next, we discuss the link between
process design and implementation. Finally, we discuss: informating processes,
knowledge management and change management.
Learning Goals
After taking this course, the student will be able to:
1. Describe the role of processes in organizations and the relationship of process
design to organizational design
2. Derive the requirements for a business process reengineering project
3. Analyze the process and redesign it using industry best practices
4. Specify a new design for implementation in a workflow management system
5. Describe how processes must be adapted and controlled to meet legislative
requirements such as Sarbanes Oxley.
6. Synthesize an implementation plan that explicitly considers the human
dimensions of change management
Additional learning objectives include the development of:
1. Written and oral communications skills: the individual project proposal will be used to
assess written skills and the final presentations will be video-taped and used to assess
presentation skills.
2. Team skills: The final project for the course will involve student teams; an online
survey instrument will be used to measure individual contributions to team performance.
3. An understanding of how process design can support strategic organizational
objectives.
Pedagogy
The course will employ lectures, class discussion, in-class individual and team
assignments, and individual and team homeworks and projects. Students will make two
team presentations during the class. One team project will involve an extensive review of
an area of research and application that is related to the material covered in the class.
Students will be asked to develop a conceptual framework for the area and to present this
in class. In the final project, student teams will analyze an existing organizational process
and develop a complete specification for a redesigned process.
Required Text(s)
Rummler, Geary A. and Alan P, Brache. Improving Performance: How to Manage the
White Space on the Organization Chart. Second Edition. Jossey-Bass Publishers, San
Fran, 1995. ISBN: 0-7879-0090-7
Recommended:
Hammer, Michael and James Champy, Reengineering the Corporation: A Manifesto for
Business Revolution, Harper Business, 1993.
Weske, Mathias. Business Process Management. Springer, 2010.
Articles
Brynjolfsson, Erik, Amy Austin Renshaw and Marshall Van Alstyne, “The Matrix of
Change,” Sloan Management Review, Winter 1997.
Brynjolfsson, Erik and Lorin M. Hitt. “Beyond the Productivity Paradox:
Computers are the Catalyst for Bigger Changes.” Communications of the ACM
August, 1998.
Gilvert, E., J. Morabito and E.A. Stohr (2010) “Knowledge Management and Decision
Making in the Peace Corps.” Knowledge and Process Management 17 (3): p.28 – 40.
Kim, Y.G. “Process Modeling for BPR: Event-Process Chain Approach.” Proceedings,
16th International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS). December 10-13, 1995. pp.
109-122.
Lechler, T., B. Ronen and E.A. Stohr. “Critical Chain: A New Project Management
Paradigm or Old Wine in New Bottles?” Journal of Engineering Management, Dec 2005.
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Morabito, J., and Stohr, E. “On Line Analytical Processing and Applications in ECommerce.” in The Internet Encyclopedia. Ed. Bidgoli, H. John Wiley. 2003.
Roztocki, N. and Kim LaScola Needy (1999). Integrating Activity-based Costing and
Economic Value-added in Manufacturing.” Engineering Management Journal 11(2):
pp.17-22.
Stoddard, D.B. and Jarvenpaa, S. “Business Process Redesign: Tactics for Managing
Radical Change,” J. of Management Information Systems, Summer 1995, 12 1, 81-107.
Shellenbarger, S. “Multitasking Makes You Stupid, Studies Say,” Star-Telegram, Mar 1st,
2003
Stohr, E.A. and J.L. Zhao, “Workflow Automation: Overview and Research Issues”.
Information Systems Frontiers, August 2001.
Varian, H. “Information Technology May Cured Low Service-Sector Productivity,” The
New York Times, Feb 12th, 2004
Assignments
The course will emphasize class discussion and the analysis of the assigned readings.
Your first and most important assignment is to come to class prepared to discuss the
readings and cases each week.
All assignments must be submitted to the MIS 710 Moodle shell.
SELF-TESTS (Individual exercises)
To help reinforce the material covered in the lectures, two short-answer take-home tests
will be given during the course. These will be based on the lecture material and should
take approximately one or two hours to complete. Your answers will be due the day after
the test is handed out.
PROCESS GOVERNANCE HOMEWORK (Individual exercise)
You will be asked to investigate the business process governance strategy in your
organization.
REENGINEERING HOMEWORK (Individual exercise)
Reengineer a simplified but real process using the tools covered in the class.
RESEARCH REVIEW (Team exercise and presentation)
Each team will review a particular disciplinary area related to the course and develop and
present an overview and framework for that area. Deliverables include a set of
PowerPoint slides (with notes) plus a 25-minute presentation.
WORKFLOW DESIGN PROJECT (Team exercise & presentation)
The class practical will involve the reengineering of a real industry process. Your
assignment is to assess the current process, identify change levers, develop a process
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vision, and design the new process using the design module of a commercial workflow
management system. One of the deliverables for this exercise is a class presentation,
which should last thirty (30) minutes. Please view the following videos on presentation
skills:
Part 1 - http://vimeo.com/54537755
Part 2 - http://vimeo.com/54537939
CLASS PARTICIPATION
To enhance the learning experience, all students are expected to participate in class
discussion and the in-class team exercises. Attendance in class sessions is an important
component of this grade.
The assignments and their weights are as follows:
Self-tests, Database and Simulation Homework(individual)
BPM Governance survey (individual)
Reengineering Homework (Individual)
Team research review (team)
Workflow team project (team)
Class participation, presence, and in-class exercises
15 %
10%
20 %
20 %
20 %
15 %
100 %
Assignments should be submitted to the Moodle shell. All assignments are due as noted
in the course schedule below. In fairness to others, late work will be penalized 10% per
week overdue. All assignments are to be submitted through Moodle.
Ethical Conduct
The following statement is printed in the Stevens Graduate Catalog and applies to all students
taking Stevens courses, on and off campus.
“Cheating during in-class tests or take-home examinations or homework is, of course, illegal and
immoral. A Graduate Academic Evaluation Board exists to investigate academic improprieties,
conduct hearings, and determine any necessary actions. The term ‘academic impropriety’ is
meant to include, but is not limited to, cheating on homework, during in-class or take home
examinations and plagiarism.“
Consequences of academic impropriety are severe, ranging from receiving an “F” in a course, to
a warning from the Dean of the Graduate School, which becomes a part of the permanent student
record, to expulsion.
Reference:
The Graduate Student Handbook, Academic Year 2003-2004 Stevens
Institute of Technology, page 10.
Consistent with the above statements, all homework exercises, tests and exams that are
designated as individual assignments MUST contain the following signed statement before they
can be accepted for grading.
____________________________________________________________________
I pledge on my honor that I have not given or received any unauthorized assistance on this
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assignment/examination. I further pledge that I have not copied any material from a book, article,
the Internet or any other source except where I have expressly cited the source.
Signature _________________________
Date: _____________
Please note that assignments in this class may be submitted to www.turnitin.com, a web-based
anti-plagiarism system, for an evaluation of their originality.
Course/Teacher Evaluation
Continuous improvement can only occur with feedback based on comprehensive and appropriate
surveys. Your feedback is an important contributor to decisions to modify course
content/pedagogy which is why we strive for 100% class participation in the survey.
All course teacher evaluations are conducted on-line. You will receive an e-mail one week prior
to the end of the course informing you that the survey site (https://www.stevens.edu/assess) is
open along with instructions for accessing the site. Login using your campus username and
password. All responses are strictly anonymous. We especially encourage you to clarify your
position on any of the questions and give explicit feedbacks on your overall evaluations in the
section at the end of the formal survey which allows for written comments. We ask that you
submit your survey prior to the close of the examination period.
COURSE SCHEDULE
1. Organizational Performance Measures: Tue, Aug 26
Short introduction to processes. Productivity. Measuring performance: Economic,
accounting and financial performance perspectives. DEA analysis. Economic value-added
(EVA). ABC cost accounting. The productivity paradox.
Articles: Brnjolfsson & Hitt. Beyond the Productivity Paradox
Roztocki and Needy. Integrating Activity-based Costing and Economic Value-added.
2. Overview of Strategy: Tue, Sep 2
Organizational efficiency and effectiveness. Market-based strategy analysis (Porter);
Resource-based Strategy Approaches; Implications for process design. Stakeholder
analysis.
Text: Rummler and Brache. Chapters 1-3
3. Systems View of Organizations: Tue, Sep 9
Effective & efficient organizations. Organization structure prototypes. Processes in an
organizational context. Designing lateral Processes.
Individual in-class exercise: Strategy of your firm.
Text: Rummler and Brache. Chapters 3-6
>>>>>>> Database design exercise due <<<<<<<<<
4. A Framework for Process and Organizational Design: Tue, Sep 16
A comprehensive approach to reengineering the enterprise. Rummler Framework:
Organizational goals, design, and management. Six Sigma, ERP, and other process
improvement frameworks.
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Individual in-class exercise: Organization of your firm.
Text: Rummler and Brache, Chapters 3-6
5. Process Mapping/ Design: Tue, Sep 23
Formal graphical representations of process flow. EPC, Petri nets. Introduction to
Business Process Notation (BPMN).
Team in-class exercise: Flow charting a process
Article: Kim, 1995.
--------------- NO CLASS ON Tue Feb 18 (Monday schedule) ------------6. Developing a Process Investment Portfolio: Tues, Sep 30
Aligning processes with corporate strategy. Strategies for selecting processes for change.
Balanced score card approach. Capital budgeting. Salience-Worth matrix.
Team in- class exercise: Selecting & prioritizing high-EVA processes in your firm.
7. Team Presentations of Literature Research: Tue, Oct 7
>>>>> Each team will present their results of their literature review <<<<<
(25 minute presentations)
>>>>> Self test 1 due
------------------ NO CLASS ON October 14 (Monday Schedule) ------------8. Process Innovation Principles I: Tue, Oct 21
Principles of reengineering. The case management approach.
Team in- class exercise: Case versus sequential work design
9. Process Innovation Principles II: Tue, Oct 28
Lean manufacturing and total quality management. Case: Six Sigma. Process Design.
Focused management principles.
Article: Lechler et al. 2005
10. Foundations of Business Process Modeling: Simulation: Tue, Nov 4
Principles of simulation. Introduction to SIMUL8.
In-class Exercise: Validating a simulation tool.
12. BPM and Workflow Systems: Tue, Nov 11
Linking design to process execution. Workflow management systems. Case Study: MF
Co. Workflow Project. Business process rules.
Article: Stohr and Zhao, 2001
>>>>> Individual Reengineering Homework due
11. Designing Data, Information, & Knowledge Architectures – Tue, Nov 18
Informating processes. Data warehousing. Business Intelligence. Explicit knowledge
discovery: data and process mining. Information linkages: control and coordination of
work.
Morabito and Stohr, 2003; Gilvert, Morabito and Stohr, 2010.
>>>>> Self test 2 due
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13. Managing Compliance and Managing Change – Tue, Nov 25
The legislative climate. Risk Analysis. Workflow and compliance.
Dimensions of change. The matrix of change approach.
Articles: Stoddart & Jarvenpaa, Brynjolfsson et al (Matrix of Change)
>>>>> BPM Governance Homework due
14. Workflow Project Term Paper – Tue, Dec 2
Each team will present their solution to the term project; written report due December 10.
>>>>> Written Workflow Project Homework due <<<<<<
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BPM Partial Bibliography
Davenport, Thomas H., Short, James E. The New Industrial Engineering: Information
Technology And Business Process Redesign. Sloan Management Review. Summer 1990.
Vol. 31.
Davenport, Thomas. Process Innovation: Reengineering Work through Information
Technology. Harvard Business School Press, 1993.
Garvin, David A. The Processes of Organization and Management, Sloan Management
Review; Summer 1998; 39, 4.
Hammer, Michael. Reengineering Work: Obliterate Don’t Automate. Harvard Business
Review, July 1990.
Hammer, Michael and James Champy, Reengineering the Corporation: A Manifesto for
Business Revolution, Harper Business, 1993.
Hitt, L & Brynjolfsson, E. Beyond Computation: Information Technology, Organizational
Transformation and Business Performance. Communications of the ACM. 1998.
Varian, H. Information Technology May Cure Low Service-Sector Productivity, The New
York Times, Feb 12th, 2004.
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