IT Enabled Process Improvement (Spring 2024)
Official course description:
Course info
Programme
Staff
Course semester
Exam
Abstract
The students will learn theoretical foundations of IT-enabled process improvement and apply these to a real life practical context by working with an organisation.
Description
Continuously improving and innovating organisational processes is considered essential for organisational survival. Accordingly, many frameworks and theoretical perspectives exist for approaching such improvement initiatives. While business processes may be improved through redesign or through automation, this course focuses on the redesign of processes that involve human work.
After the course, the students should be able to:
- Use the methods taught in the course to analyse and improve business processes that involve human work
- Analyse business process improvement initiatives using theories taught in the course
- Reflect on similarities and differences between different methods and theoretical perspectives on process improvement and on the effects that these differences may have when conducting process improvement in an organisational context
- Explain how different types of information technology can enable or inhibit process improvement
- Develop an appropriate research design for an improvement project in a specific organisational context reflecting upon different options and qualifying their decisions
- Define a relevant and adequate problem definition for an improvement initiative in a specific organisational context involving relevant stakeholders
- Facilitate/conduct an ample analysis of the current situation in a specific organisational context as a basis for suggesting actual improvements
- Develop and justify a plan/solution for an improvement initiative in a specific organisational context involving relevant stakeholders
- Perform an executive presentation of the result of their project work
- Reflect upon the project work; research design, process, result, learning etc.
Formal prerequisites
Students should be able to:- Formulate a research question
- Search for and cite literature
- Conduct a minor field study using interviews and observation
- Create business processes models using BPMN*
*You can acquire this skill by attending Business Process Modelling & Automation in the same semester
Intended learning outcomes
After the course, the student should be able to:
- Use the methods taught in the course to analyse and improve business processes that involve human work
- Analyse business process improvement initiatives using theories taught in the course
- Reflect on similarities and differences between different methods and theoretical perspectives on process improvement and on the effects that these differences may have when conducting process improvement in an organisational context
- Explain how different types of information technology can enable or inhibit process improvement
- Develop an appropriate research design for an improvement project in a specific organisational context reflecting upon different options and qualifying their decisions
- Define a relevant and adequate problem definition for an improvement initiative in a specific organisational context involving relevant stakeholders
- Facilitate/conduct an ample analysis of the current situation in a specific organisational context as a basis for suggesting actual improvements
- Develop and justify a plan/solution for an improvement initiative in a specific organisational context involving relevant stakeholders
- Perform an executive presentation of the result of their project work
- Reflect upon the project work; research design, process, result, learning etc.
Learning activities
In this course, the students will learn both methods and theoretical prespectives on process improvement. The methods include:
- Business Process Reengineering
- Design Thinking
- Lean Management
- Business Process Simulation
- Service Design
- Six Sigma
Theoretical perspectives include theories of routines, organizational learning, change, and others.
Learning activities include lectures, reading practitioner and academic literature related to process improvement, in-class discussion, exercises, case study discussion, e-learning exercises, and, in particular, the work on a student project. The student project revolves around improving an organizational process in a specific real-life context. The projects are carried out in groups. Each group will identify and define a relevant improvement initiative in close collaboration with its case organization, analyze the current situation of the chosen process, and, based on the analysis, develop and justify a plan or a solution for improving the defined situation.
Course literature
The course literature will be made available on LearnIT.
Student Activity Budget
Estimated distribution of learning activities for the typical student- Preparation for lectures and exercises: 15%
- Lectures: 15%
- Exercises: 15%
- Project work, supervision included: 45%
- Exam with preparation: 10%
Ordinary exam
Exam type:D: Submission of written work with following oral, External (7-point scale)
Exam variation:
D2G: Submission for groups with following oral exam supplemented by the submission. Shared responsibility for the report.
The body of your report should be between 20 and 30 pages.
Students may use generative AI for idea generation and editing as long as they document their use of generative AI. They must not use generative AI during the oral exam.
Group
- Group size: 3-6 (recommended: 4-5)
30 minutes
Mixed exam 2 : Joint student presentation followed by an individual dialogue. The group makes their presentations together and afterwards the students participate in the dialogue individually while the rest of the group is outside the room.
reexam
Exam type:D: Submission of written work with following oral, External (7-point scale)
Exam variation:
D2G: Submission for groups with following oral exam supplemented by the submission. Shared responsibility for the report.
The body of your report should be between 20 and 30 pages.
Students may use generative AI for idea generation and editing as long as they document their use of generative AI. They must not use generative AI during the oral exam.
Group
- Group size: 3-6 (recommended: 4-5)
30 minutes
Mixed exam 2 : Joint student presentation followed by an individual dialogue. The group makes their presentations together and afterwards the students participate in the dialogue individually while the rest of the group is outside the room.
Time and date
Ordinary Exam - submission Tue, 21 May 2024, 08:00 - 14:00Ordinary Exam Mon, 10 June 2024, 09:00 - 18:00
Ordinary Exam Tue, 11 June 2024, 09:00 - 18:00
Ordinary Exam Wed, 12 June 2024, 09:00 - 18:00
Ordinary Exam Thu, 13 June 2024, 09:00 - 18:00
Ordinary Exam Fri, 14 June 2024, 09:00 - 18:00
Ordinary Exam Mon, 17 June 2024, 09:00 - 18:00
Reexam - submission Wed, 24 July 2024, 08:00 - 14:00
Reexam Thu, 15 Aug 2024, 09:00 - 21:00
Reexam Fri, 16 Aug 2024, 09:00 - 13:00