Redesigning Acquisition Processes: A New Methodology ...

Redesigning Acquisition Processes:
A New Methodology
Based on the Flow of Knowledge and Information
By Ned Kock and Frederic Murphy

Research Project Report funded by the External Acquisition Research Program (EARP) and printed by the Defense Acquisition University Press, July 2001

Limited paper copies are available from the DAU Press by faxing (703) 805-2917.

Current business process redesign practices, in the defense sector as well as in business in general, are based on several assumptions inherited from Taylor's scientific management method, including the key assumption that activity-flow representations should provide the basis for business process redesign. While this assumption was probably correct for most organizations in the early 1900s, it is clearly inconsistent with the fact that, currently "information" is what flows the most in business processes, even in manufacturing organizations. This project is based on the key assumption that the current focus of business process redesign approaches should be on information flows rather than activity flows.

The main goal of this project is to develop a methodology for redesigning acquisition processes based on knowledge and information-flow analysis. The methodology, called InfoDesign, focuses on the knowledge embedded in a business process, the information processing resources involved in execution of the process, and the information flowing through the process. The InfoDesign methodology was developed and partially validated during a one-year project. The validation of the methodology was conducted as an action research study in which one acquisition process involving the U.S. Government and one key supplier was analyzed and redesigned. The results of the study support the key assumption on which InfoDesign was built - that current business process redesign approaches should focus on information flows rather than activity flows.