1. BPM in E-Gov <Objectives of the Study> <Research Methodology>
Vienna
Prof. Dr. Friedrich Roithmayr & Dr. René Riedl Johannes Kepler University Linz Department of Business Informatics – Information Engineering

2. Agenda Motivation for e-government initiatives Objectives of the study
Characteristics of the research methodology
Research framework (overview)
Operationalization of the dependent variable
Operationalization of the independent variables
Summary – research framework

3. Motivation for e-government
Reduction in administrative costs
Governmental budgets are decreasing
Direct measurement of costs is possible
Increase in service quality and customer satisfaction
Increase in citizens‘ and firms‘ requirements
Quality and satisfaction are incapable of direct measurement
- Measurement with questionnaires that represent a subjective rating
- Measurement by the number of complaints

4. Objectives of the study
Investigation of success factors and potential drawbacks for BPM in e-government
Identification of good and bad practices of reorganisation of government back office processes
Identification and systematisation of different business process management issues
Investigation of effectiveness and efficiency effects of business process management approaches
Giving recommendations for e-government decision makers in order to make e-government projects a success

5. Research Methodology
Theory-driven methodology (development of a research framework)
Empirical approach (all evidence must be empirically based, that is, dependent on evidence that is observable by the senses)
Qualitative approach (involves the use of qualitative data – such as text from interviews or questionnaires – to understand and explain social phenomena)
Interpretive approach (access to reality – given or socially constructed – is only possible through social constructions such as language, consciousness and shared meanings)
Case-based approach (small sample size, but in-depth analysis)
Explorative research (generation of hypothesis/theory)
Data collection (web-based questionnaire, experts in the field of e-government projects, from February to April 2006)

6. Research framework (basics)
Success (Failure) of an e-government project
Is X the cause of Y?
If yes, what is the intensity of the effect?

7. Measurement of the dependent variable (Y)

8. Process effectiveness
The output of the process meets the requirements of the end customers
The output of every sub-process meets the input requirements of internal customers
The inputs from the suppliers meet the requirements of the process
Typical lack-of-process-effectiveness indicators are:
Unacceptable service quality
Complaints by citizens or firms
Backlog
Redoing completed work
Rejected output
Late output
Incomplete output

9. Process efficiency Cycle time per unit or transaction
Process time per unit or transaction
Wait time per unit or transaction
Transport time per unit or transaction
Resources (in monetary units, people, space) per unit of output
Process cost
Poor-quality cost per unit of output

10. Resource efficiency Productivity
How efficiently are governmental bodies' resources transformed into the production of services?
Productivity measures how much output is produced relative to the inputs of labour, capital (plant and equipment), and technology.
An increase in productivity implies that more output can be produced with the same inputs (or perhaps less).

11. Motivation efficiency
The ability to close the gap between the organisation’s and the executive’s (civil servant’s) objectives.
Typical motivation efficiency indicators are the existence of:
Incentives for executives in order to not behave opportunistically
Monitoring systems

12. Measurement of the independent variables (X1 – Xn)

13. Project management factors
Purpose and goal of the project
Initiation of the project
Number of processes concerned by the project
Project budget
Project time
Project organization
Project management tool
Project manager
Scheduling objects (milestones, manpower, equipment, …)
Project team

14. Process and technology factors
Kinds of processes concerned by reorganization (before the project started)
- Level of interaction (information, communication, transaction)
- Level of integration (with media break, without media break, automatic)
Business process levels (end-customer-related measurements, process measurements and/or performance, supplier partnerships, documentation, training, benchmarking, process adaptability, continuous improvement)
Modelling method (e.g. petri-nets, event-driven process chains)
Reference models
IT infrastructure (Hardware, OS, packaged software, standards like XML)

15. Organizational and personal factors
Business process outsourcing and IT outsourcing
Motivations of different stakeholders
- Top management
- ICT employees
- Affected executives
- Citizens and firms
Expectations of different stakeholders
Communication between internal stakeholders
- Communication of project objectives
- Communication of progress within the project
- Communication of potential benefits
- Communication of changes in terms of workflow
Distribution of power between internal stakeholders
Demographic characteristics (e.g. age of the project manager)

16. Business process approaches
A business process approach is a framework to manage the various processes within an organisation in the long run. BPM refers to a set of activities which organizations can perform to either optimize their business processes or adapt them to new organizational needs.
Management systems
Strategic management processes
Project management
Knowledge management
Change management
Quality management
Stakeholder management
Reference model
Process standardization
IT infrastructure
Business process outsourcing
Real-time business
Intangibles

17. Summary (research framework)
Dependent Variable
Effect
Independent Variables
Causes

18. Questions?
BPM in E-Gov <Objectives of the Study> <Research Methodology>