Stevens Institute of Technology
Howe School of Technology Management
MIS 722: Business Process Management & Innovation
Spring 2014 – Final Syllabus with Readings
Semester:
Spring 2014
Class Week/Time & Location:
Wed 6:15-8:45 pm, Babbio #641
Primary Instructor:
Carol V. Brown
Practica Instructors:
Ted Stohr
Michael zur Muehlen
Office Hours & Location – Carol Brown:
Tues & Wed pm & by app’t, Babbio #409
Overview
The course introduces Ph.D. 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 the form of business processes) with technology capabilities (in the form
of software applications. Students will assess and discuss selected research papers in each
seminar meeting, and develop a research paper that includes a literature review on a topic
related to business process management of their own choosing.
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 such as computer
science, management, and information systems. Structuration theory and coordination
theory are examples of theories that have been utilized in BPM research. The selected
readings will include conceptual papers as well as empirical papers utilizing action
research design science, field surveys, and case study research methods.
The major topics to be covered in this course are as follows:
1. Process Thinking: Business Process Redesign Enabled by IT
2. IT-Enabled Business Process Innovation: Case Examples of Software
Development Processes, Coordination and Group Decision-Making, and
Enterprise System Implementations
3. Business Process Change Management Frameworks for Radical and Incremental
Change
4. Process Design: An Introduction to Modeling Tools
5. Business Process Analytics & Process Mining
6. Business Process Management Governance
7. Business Process Management MaturityModels
Learning Goals
Students completing this course will be able to
1. Describe and assess recent research on business process management topics
2. Comprehend different research methods that are being used in the BPM domain
3. Apply relevant theoretical frameworks to business process management research
4. Develop a research paper that includes a literature review
Additional learning objectives include the development of:
1. Written communication skills: written summaries and critiques of readings, a
midterm exam, and a term paper will help each student develop these skills.
2. Oral communication skills: participation in weekly seminar meetings, including
taking lead roles in the discussion of specific readings, and opportunities to
present using presentation software support will help each student improve their
oral communication skills
3. Core knowledge and research tools in their major field of study: conceptual and
empirical readings for this course will increase each student’s knowledge of this
topical area, and relevant theories and methodological approaches for contributing
knowledge to this research stream.
Pedagogy
A combination of faculty- led and student-led discussions of assigned research papers,
faculty-led introductions to process modeling and discovery tools, and summary
presentations by students of research article critiques and term paper findings.
Students will also complete an essay exam mid-way through the course to ensure their
understanding of basic BPM concepts and their ability to apply the findings from related
research studies.
Course Requirements and Grading
Written assignments (6) and weekly in-class participation
Mid-term Exam (take-home essay exam)
Term Paper (including a literature review)
40%
20%
40%
100 %
Required Readings
The required weekly readings for this course include articles from peer-reviewed
journals, book chapters, recent academic conference papers, practitioner white papers,
and case studies. The citations for the required readings selected by the instructor for this
semester are provided below by topic. One class session will also be devoted to
additional articles selected by students on topics related to their term papers. For those
readings not accessible via the Stevens electronic databases, copies will be provided via
the Stevens online environment for this course (Moodle).
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PROCESS THINKING
Brynjolfsson, E. and L.M. Hitt. (1998) ”Beyond the Productivity Paradox.” Communications of
the ACM, 41:8 (August), pp. 49-55.
Davenport, T.H. and J.E. Short. (1990). ”The New Industrial Engineering: Information
Technology and Business Process Redesign.” Sloan Managment Review, 31:4 (Summer), pp. 1127.
Garvin, D.A. (1998). ”The Processes of Organization and Management.” Sloan Management
Review, 39:4 (Summer), pp. 33-50.
Hammer, M. And S. Stanton. (1999). ”How Process Enterprises Really Work.” Harvard
Business Review, 77 (November-December), pp. 108-118.
BP CHANGE MANAGEMENT FRAMEWORKS
Guha, S., Grover, V., Kettinger, W. J., and Teng, J. T. C. (1997). “Business process change and
organizational performance: Exploring an antecedent model.” Journal of Management
Information Systems, 14(1), 119-154.
Hammer, M. (1990). “Reengineering work: Don’t automate, obliterate.” Harvard Business
Review, 68 (July-August), 104-112.
Markus, M.L. (2004). “Technochange management: using IT to drive organizational change.”
Journal of Information Technology, 19(4). 4-20.
Orlikowski, W.J. (1993). “CASE tools as organizational change: Investigating incremental and
radical changes in systems development.” MIS Quarterly, 17(3), 309-340.
Stoddard, D.B., and Jarvenpaa, S.L. (1995). “Business Process Redesign: Tactics for Managing
Radical Change.” Journal of Management Information Systems, 12(1), 81-107.
CASE STUDY EXAMPLES OF IT IMPLEMENTATIONS FOR NEW PROCESSES
Advantage 2000 at Owens Corning: Business and IT Transformation. By C.V. Brown. Case
Study IV-3 in Managing Information Technology, 7th edition, by C.V. Brown, D.W. DeHayes
J.S. Hoffer, E.Wainright Martin, and W.C. Perkins. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2012.
Baria Planning Solutions, Inc.: Fixing the Sales Process. Harvard Business School. Case #4568.
NIBCO’s ‘Big Bang’: An SAP Implementation. By C.V. Brown and I.Vessey. Case Study III-5
in Managing Information Technology, 7th edition, by C.V. Brown, D.W. DeHayes J.S. Hoffer,
E.Wainright Martin, and W.C. Perkins. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2012.
Pharmacy Improvement at CVS. By A.P. McAfee. Harvard Business School. Case A: #9-606-015., Case
B: #9-606-029.
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THEORETICAL FRAMEWORKS FOR BUSINESS PROCESS INNOVATIONS
Crowston, K. (1997) A Coordination Theory Approach to Organizational Process Design.
Organization Science, 8:2 (March-April), pp. 157-175.
DeSanctis, G. and M.S. Poole. (1994) Capturing the Complexity in Advanced Technology Use:
Adaptive Structuration Theory. Organization Science, 5:2 (May), pp. 121-147.
Majchrzak, A., R.E. Rice, N. King, A. Malhotra, and S. Ba. (2000). Technology Adaptation: The Case of
a Computer-Supported Inter-Organizational Virtual Team. MIS Quarterly 24:4 (Dec.), pp. 569-600.
Orlikowski, W.J. “Using technology and constituting structures: A practice lens for studying
technology in organizations. Organization Science 11:4 (2000), pp. 404-428.
APPLICATION SOFTWARE PROCESS INNOVATIONS
Fichman, R.G. and C.F. Kemerer. “The Assimilation of Software Process Innovations: An Organizational
Learning Perspective,” Management Science, 43:10 (October 1997), pp. 1345-1363.
Holmstrom, H., B. Fitzgerald, P.J. Agerfalk and E.O. Conchuir. “Agile Practices Reduce Distance in
Global Software Development,” Information Systems Management, 23:3 (Summer 2006), pp. 7-18.
Nelson, R.R. and K.J. Jansen. “Mapping and Managing Momentum in IT Projects,” MIS
Quarterly Executive, 8:3 (September 2009), pp. 141-148.
Wu, W.W., G.M. Rose, and K. Lyytinen. “Recognizing and Managing Innovation Points in
Large IT Projects,” MIS Quarterly Executive, 10:3 (September 2011), pp. 121-132.
BUSINESS PROCESS/BPM GOVERNANCE
Braganza, A. and R. Lambert (2000). Strategic Integration: Developing a Process-Governance
Framework. Knowledge and Process Management, 7:3 (Jul/Sep), pp. 177-186.
Booz Allen Hamilton (2003) Process Ownership: The Overlooked Driver of Sustained BPR
Success. Industry white paper, 5pp.
Markus, M.L. and D.D. Jacobson. (2010). Business Process Governance. In Handbook on
Business Process Management 2, edited by J. vom Brocke and M. Rosemann. Berlin: SpringerVerlag. pp. 201-222.
Rosemann, M. (2010). The Service Portfolio of a BPM Center of Excellence. In Handbook on
Business Process Management 2, edited by J. vom Brocke and M. Rosemann. Berlin: SpringerVerlag. pp. 267-284.
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Scheer, A-W. and E. Brabaender. (2010). The Process of Business Process Management. In
Handbook on Business Process Management 2, edited by J. vom Brocke and M. Rosemann.
Berlin: Springer-Verlag. pp. 239-265.
Spanyi, A. (2010). Business Process Management Governance. In Handbook on Business
Process Management 2, edited by J. vom Brocke and M. Rosemann. Berlin: Springer-Verlag.
pp. 223-238.
BUSINESS PROCESS MATURITY
Adler, P.S. , F.E. McGarry, W.B. Irion-Talbot and D.J. Binney (2005). Enabling Process
Discipline: Lessons from the Journey to CMM Level 5. MIS Quarterly Executive, 4:1 (March),
pp. 215-227.
Harter, D.E., M.S. Krishnan and S.A. Slaughte (2000). Effects of Process Maturity on Quality,
Cycle Time, and Effort in Software Product Development. Management Science, 46:4 (April),
pp. 451-466.
Rosemann, M. and T. de Bruin (2006). Towards a Business Process Management Maturity
Model. Unpublished working paper, Queensland University of Technology, Australia, unp.
Schmiedel, T., J. vom Brocke and J. Recker (2014). Development and Validation of an
Instrument to Measure Organizational Cultures’ Support of Business Process Management.
Information & Management, 51, pp. 43-56.
BUSINESS PROCESS ANALYTICS & PROCESS MINING
IEEE Task Force on Process Mining. Process Mining Manifesto, unp.
Zur Muehlen, M. and R. Shapiro. (2010) Business Process Analytics. In Handbook on Business
Process Management 2, edited by J. vom Brocke and M. Rosemann. Berlin: Springer-Verlag.
pp. 137-157.
May 2014 -cvbrown
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