Abstract
Professionals in system development have recognised and recommended the use of System Development Methodologies (SDMs) in South African organisations (Huisman and Iivari 2003, Huisman 2004). Professionals in BPR have also raised concern over the negative impact that BPR has on the organisational strategy (Mavetera 2012, Hammer and Champy 2005). There has therefore been a call for the use of SDMs during BPR to try and lessen the burden BPR bears on the organisational strategy (Hammer and Champy 2005, Muthu, Whitman and Cheraghi 1999 and Giaglis 2009). This study aimed to bring to light the role of SDMs in preserving the organisational strategy during BPR. The motivation behind this study is informed by past research in BPR, organisational strategy and SDMs. To be able to gather more evidence that support the ideas behind the past research and assist in establishing the purpose of the study in practice; interviews were done with South African Merged Higher Education Institutions (MHEIs) and literature on this topic was also used. This study was qualitative in nature and applied unstructured interviews and literature analysis of which results found that BPR has an effect on the organisational strategy in several ways and SDMs are either being applied or recommended in for BPR projects.
Highlights
South Africa underwent extensive restructuring of its Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) through mergers during its first decade of democracy
The use of System Development Methodologies (SDMs) for projects appears to be common in South African Merged Higher Education Institutions (MHEIs)
The results indicate that SDMs are being applied for Information Systems development, their use is not necessarily targeted to address the impact of Business Process Reengineering (BPR) on organisational strategy but just as a leverage of the whole development process
Summary
South Africa underwent extensive restructuring of its Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) through mergers during its first decade of democracy These mergers caused the restructuring and redirecting of previously individual Information Systems infrastructures to larger and combined ones thereby invoking BPR and causing shifts on. Besides the expansion of Information Systems there were modifications and adjustments to original business processes thereby invoking several BPR initiatives. It is with this in mind that this study was undertaken. Strategic decisions in any organisation are based on the information at hand and it is obvious that BPR initiatives such as mergers affect the way information was previously handled. The BPR process should be well handled in such a way that Information Systems will still allow valuable decisions to be based on existent information
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