Selecting the best strategic practices for business process redesign

Abstract Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to present a methodology which defines best strategic practices for business process redesign (BPR). Design/methodology/approach – A total of 29 best practices are studied and evaluated from the literature. The philosophy of TOPSIS (Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution) method is applied in recognizing the alignment of best practices with the organization strategy. The indicators of cost, time, quality and flexibility are used as the criteria to measure the degree of alignment of best practices with organization strategy. The proposed method is tested in a case study of the registration process at a university. Findings – The recent investment failures in BPR projects show that the relation between best practices and organization strategies should be highly considered. It is indicated that process redesign can meet organization strategies through recognizing and implementing best strategic practices. Research limitations/implications – Considering the fact that pundits working in the field of BPR are not accessible, the previous published findings and results have been used in this research. Practical implications – Owing to the limitations on budget and time, organizations are able to consider only those best practices which play a critical vote in helping them to achieve their goals. Best strategic practices list provides managers and business analysts with a precious resource in BPR projects. Originality/value – This paper presents a new methodology for introducing best strategic practices for BPR. A strategic best practice is a new term in the BPR literature.