Business Processes: The Theoretical Impact of Process Thinking on Information Systems Development

TL;DR

This paper examines how process thinking influences organizational structure and epistemology in IS development, highlighting negative impacts on IT project success and suggesting the need for a new mindset.

Contribution

It identifies the dual effects of process thinking on IS development and discusses the limitations of current approaches like Business Process Reengineering.

Findings

Process thinking increases structural complexity in IS.

Process thinking's view of organizations can negatively affect IS support.

Technical solutions address structural complexity, but organizational conception issues require non-technical approaches.

Abstract

This paper investigates two aspects of process thinking that affect the success rate of IT projects. These two aspects are the changes in the structure of organizations and the epistemology of Information Systems Development. Firstly, the conception of business processes within the management of organizations increases the structural complexity of Information Systems, because existing systems have to be integrated into a coherent cross-functional architecture. Secondly, process thinking leads to a particular view of organizations that ultimately has a negative effect on the support of Information Systems. As an illustration of process thinking, the Business Process Reengineering movement adheres to a technocratic management perspective of organizations. Particularly this conception of organization views people as mechanisms to realize certain organizational goals. As a result of this view stakeholders are confronted with the implemented systems, rather than consulted about the scope and functionality of those systems. Therefore, both aspects of process thinking have a negative impact on the success of IT projects. The problem of structural complexity is an area that is addressed by Enterprise Application Integration, and mainly requires technical solutions. However, the problems associated with the conception of organization require a different, markedly non-technical, perspective. Several directions are discussed to overcome some limitations of process thinking, but these directions are merely small pointers. If truly effective and useful Information Systems are to be acquired, IT practitioners and scientists require a completely different mindset.