Reengineering Organizations

In light of the Pentagon's efforts to streamline its business practices, GAO conducted a symposium in June 1994 on private sector best practices in reengineering. Five principles for effective reengineering emerged from the symposium. The principles reflect the panelists' views, which are not necessarily those of GAO. First, top management must be supportive of and engaged in reengineering efforts to remove barriers and drive success. Second, an organization's culture must be receptive to reengineering goals and principles. Third, major improvements and savings are realized by focusing on the business from a process rather than a functional perspective. Fourth, reengineering processes should be chosen on the basis of a clear notion of customer needs, anticipated benefits, and potential for success. Fifth, process owners should manage reengineering projects with teams that are cross-functional, maintain a proper scope, focus on customer metrics, and enforce implementation timeliness.

GAO noted that: (1) five principles for effective reengineering emerged from the GAO-sponsored symposium; (2) while these principles are not intended to be an all-inclusive list on how to effectively implement reengineering, they form the basis of a framework for bringing about the radical change required to reengineer business processes in a large organization; (3) the principles reflect the panel members' views, which are not necessarily those of GAO; and (4) the five principles are: (a) top management must be supportive of and engaged in reengineering efforts to remove barriers and drive success; (b) an organization's culture must be receptive to reengineering goals and principles; (c) major improvements and savings are realized by focusing on the business from a process rather than a functional perspective; (d) processes should be selected for reengineering based on a clear notion of customer needs, anticipated benefits, and potential for success; and (e) process owners should manage reengineering projects with teams that are cross-functional, maintain a proper scope, focus on customer metrics, and enforce implementation timelines.