A groupware tool to support participatory business process reengineering

Abstract

Companies normally hire external consultants to carry our their business process re-engineering. While this can be simple and low-cost, most reengineering projects with this approach have failed. A low level of workers' involvement with a consequent resistance to changes, and a continuous dependency on external consultants are the main drawbacks. We developed a tool based on an alternative approach to BPR, where company workers play an active and important role in re-design of the organization's processes in a cooperative style. The paper describes a CSCW tool for the third phase of the PAWS method that is responsible for increasing the alternatives and decides on a solution to the improvement of a business process.