Integrating Information Systems Methodologies into an Engineering Discipline: Methodological Issues, and the Rise of Business Process Engineering Integrating Information Systems Methodologies into an Engineering Discipline: Methodological Issues, and the Rise of Business Process Engineering

Making a business process with information systems is the target of information systems methodologies. A business process is intangible system that human beings make artifically to satisfy some goals. It is a human activity system [1]. It consists of human activities, contains formal components such as datamodel and information systems, and is subject to achievement of its goal. Since a business process is artificail and contains human activities, the natural science cannot be directly applied to. The aim of business process engineering is to analyse and synthesize such business processes with information systems, though the current status of its development does not have engineering precision yet. This paper gives fundamental examination of the nature of business process, and then proposes a model of business process for integration of related issues such as information systems, operations management, and human organizations. This paper is threefold. First, the nature of research of social systems as artificail systems will be clarified based on general systems research. Referring Simon[2] and Yoshida[3], huge difference between natural and social sciences will be reconsidered, and then an epistemological basis for research of intangible and artificial systems is set. Secondly, a methodology for integration of researches will be formulated based on Yoshikawa et.al [4] and Gibbons [5]. The role and power of general systems research for integration is also examined. Thirdly, the on-going development of business process engineering is shown as sample application of integration-oriented methodology. A model of business process with information systems is formualted. Also, the function of information system is shown to be both state transition and organizational coordination.