Business engineering

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Business engineering (BE) sees itself as a business design theory for change projects. The approach integrates concepts, model and method components from business administration , change management , systems engineering and innovation management . It includes the engineering development and introduction of business solutions from the business model to business processes and organizational structure to information systems and information technology (see Österle ). The aim of the BE is to develop innovative business solutions as socio-technical systems “as professionally as aircraft or manufacturing plants”, since the complexity is comparably high. BE brings together business and information technology knowledge and connects it with all aspects of the transformation, from means of representation to procedural models to cultural and political aspects (see Baumöl / Jung).

classification

In contrast to traditional industrial engineering, business engineering today deals with problems that arise from the transformation of the industrial into the information society (see Winter), i.e. the digitization of companies, business, administration and society and, triggered by consumerization , also with digital services for the individual (see Hess / Legner). Because of the strong influence of information technology, BE is often seen as a sub-discipline of business informatics, partly because of the strong emphasis on change management as a form of organizational development. Industrial engineering has a large overlap with this, but primarily considers the goods economy (less the services) and focuses more on technical systems and their interfaces to people from a production perspective.

Österle / Blessing characterize BE as follows:

  • In addition to the professional and technical design, BE also includes the political and cultural dimension of a new business solution. The political-cultural dimension and change management are crucial factors in the success or failure of the transformation (see Baumöl). The BE is therefore an interdisciplinary approach. BE separates the organizational levels of the company.
  • BE differentiates between a strategic, organizational and technological design level. The consideration of different design objects on different levels enables a focused view on the individual dimensions of the transformation (cf. Österle et al. P. 191). Breaking down the problem into different levels ensures security and helps to reduce the complexity of the transformation process.
  • BE ensures a holistic view of all dimensions. It supports not only the design of new business models , business processes and information systems , but also the implementation. It therefore considers all dimensions (affected resources and processes) of the transformation.
  • BE refers to the method and model-based design theory for companies in the information age (see Winter, p. 7). A company transformation, including its technical and socio-economic aspects, is far too important and complex to be contested without the use of methods and models. Methods and models not only ensure transparency in the transformation process, but also structure it based on the division of labor, create a basis for communication and enable the systematic reorientation of a company to be documented. The BE differentiates itself from individualistic “creating” (cf. Winter) through a division of labor and engineering-like “construction”.
  • BE looks at consumers from a company perspective. The strong penetration of all private areas with information technology ( consumerization ) is currently only covered in the BE from a company perspective, but not from a human perspective.

A business engineering forum is held annually in St. Gallen , where experts from science and business discuss new developments.

Business engineering approaches

ARIS (architecture of integrated information systems)

The ARIS concept (see Scheer) differentiates between description views and levels. The different views are the organization, data, performance, function and control view of processes. There are three different description levels for each description view. These are the technical concept, the data processing concept (DP concept) and the implementation level.

Through this framework, individual elements of the model can be described separately using specific methods. These methods help to map and improve business processes, from basic business issues to implementation on the IT level.

Business Engineering St. Gallen

The BE's St. Gallen approach encompasses principles and methods for different types of transformation projects. Within the transformation process, he differentiates between the four design levels of strategy, organization, information systems and politics & culture and, through this breakdown, reduces the complexity of the transformation:

  • Strategy: skills (including brand) and resources, business areas (products, services, customer segments), customer access, competitive positioning, ecosystem, revenue and cost structure
  • Organization: Structure and process organization of the company, focus on business processes with associated process services, processes, tasks and business objects
  • Information system: system of applications and technical services, software and data components as well as IT infrastructure components. Depending on the relevance of the information technology in the respective company, this level is broken down in a further step into "alignment", "software and data" and "IT infrastructure" (see Winter / Fischer).
  • Politics & culture: leadership, corporate culture , communication, behavior

Well-known software tools such as the “ARIS Toolset”, “ADOben” or “Seetalk” support the St. Gallen approach of the BE.

Semantic Object Model (SOM)

The semantic object model (SOM) (cf. Ferstl / Sinz) is used for the conceptual modeling of operational system types. The modeling concept differentiates between three model levels of such systems: The strategic business plan, the operational business process models of process types and specifications for the implementation of application systems. These levels can also be viewed as perspectives on the system. They correspond to the external perspective, internal perspective and resource perspective. The model levels are then conceptually subdivided again based on the company architecture, the process model, the coordination principles or the object system.

The Open Group Architecture Framework (TOGAF)

The The Open Group Architecture Framework (TOGAF) (see. Weinberger) provides a framework for enterprise architecture, which provides a holistic approach to the design, planning, implementation and maintenance of information architectures, thus covering a major cut, but not the entire scope of the BE .

When using TOGAF, the company architecture is usually modeled in the three domains of business architecture, information system architecture (consisting of application architecture and data architecture) and technology architecture.

Integral design of organizational structures and information systems (Henk Sol)

Van Meel and Sol (1996) define BE as the “integral design of organizational structures and information systems”. The central components of their approach are dynamic modeling and simulation.

Education

There is a particularly large number of BE programs in Belgium . The Solvay Brussels School of Economics and Management, the ICHEC Brussels Management School , the Louvain School of Management , the University of Liège , the University of Ghent and the University of Antwerp offer Bachelor and Master programs in BE. The course includes management methodology, business administration, economics, mathematics as well as technical components and computer science.

In Finland , the University of Oulu offers a degree in Business Engineering. However, a requirement for this is a master’s degree in engineering.

In Germany , the Steinbeis University of Applied Sciences in Berlin enables the English-language course for a Master of Business Engineering. Similar to the programs in Belgium, the content here is management methodologies and the basics of business and economics. To be admitted to the program, you must have a degree in an economic, technical or scientific discipline.

In Switzerland , at the Institute for Information Systems at the University of St.Gallen, the HSG Executive MBA in Business Engineering can be completed in a modular and part-time manner in around 18 months. In two foreign modules in the USA ( Santa Clara University ) and China ( Jiaotong University , Shanghai), management methods there are taught and supplemented by a study module in Berlin .

Also in Switzerland, the Executive MBA in Business Engineering can be completed in 4 semesters while working at the PHW Hochschule Wirtschaft Bern . The main focus is on the subjects of internationalization strategies, technology management, business models and value creation concepts, information management and systems, value-oriented corporate management and turnaround management.

In Mexico , the Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México offers a four-year business engineering program with topics from mathematics, economics, finance, administration and IT.

In Chile , the Universidad de Chile has been offering a Master in Business Engineering (M.Sc.) since 2003. As in Germany and Belgium, the program combines management, business administration, finance, economics, science and technology. The course includes theoretical training as well as a practical approach in which students develop a project for the private or public sector. The program lasts about four semesters.

In Peru , it has been possible to study business engineering for a bachelor's degree at the Universidad del Pacífico in Lima since 2008. BE students have the opportunity to specialize in process engineering, engineering of information technology or project engineering. The course includes courses and modules on a wide range of topics (mathematics, physics, computer science, economics, philosophy, sociology and many more).

In El Salvador , there has been a program in BE for professionals at the Escuela Superior de Economia y Negocios (ESEN) since 2009 . The program focuses on the system perspective, the modeling and analysis of the complex relationships between resources, employees and information, as well as the integration of engineering knowledge with a quantitative and qualitative understanding of business. Like other programs, the degree includes elements from various specialist areas, such as business administration, economics, leadership, innovation and information technology.

In the Philippines , the Ateneo de Naga University enables a specialization in BE in the Bachelor of Business Administration (B.Sc.). The 4-year program aims to train young technology-based founders as well as prepare students for careers in technology-related industries. Practical projects aim to stimulate creativity and innovative strength for the conceptualization and implementation of products and ideas, while at the same time promoting the socio-economic development of the Bicol region. There is also a close network of entrepreneurs and business people to enable learning of “best practices”.

literature

  • S. Aier, S. Kurpjuweit, J. Saat, R. Winter: Business Engineering Navigator: A "Business to IT" Approach to Enterprise Architecture Management. In: S. Bernard, G. Doucet, J. Gøtze, P. Saha (Eds.): Coherency Management: Architecting the Enterprise for Alignment, Agility, and Assurance. Author House, Bloomington 2009.
  • O. Barros, C. Julio: Enterprise and process architecture patterns. In: Business Process Management Journal. Vol. 17 (4), 2011, pp. 598-618.
  • OK Ferstl, EJ Sinz: The approach of the semantic object model (SOM) for modeling business processes. In: Business Informatics. Vol. 37 (3), 1995, pp. 209-220.
  • P. Fettke: Empirical Business Engineering - Foundation and selected results. Habilitation thesis. Saarland University, Saarbrücken 2008. Download PDF
  • H. Österle, D. Blessing: Approaches of Business Engineering. In: S. Strahringer (Ed.): Business Engineering. HMD 42, No. 241, 2005, pp. 7-17.
  • H. Österle, F. Höning, P. Osl: Core method of business engineering: A textbook. University of St. Gallen, Institute of Information Management, St. Gallen 2011. Download PDF
  • AW Scheer: Business process engineering: Reference models for industrial enterprises. 2nd Edition. Springer Verlag, Berlin / Heidelberg 1998. books.google.nl
  • J. van Meel, H. Sol: Business Engineering: Dynamic Modeling Instruments for a Dynamic World. In: Simulation & Gaming. Vol. 27 (4), 1996, pp. 440-461. sag.sagepub.com
  • R. Winter: Business Engineering Navigator: Design and analysis of business solutions "Business-to-IT". Springer, Berlin / Heidelberg 2011. springer.com
  • R. Winter: Models, techniques and tools in business engineering. In: H. Österle, R. Winter: Business Engineering. Springer, Berlin / Heidelberg 2003, pp. 87–118.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ H. Österle, R. Winter: Business Engineering: On the way to the enterprise of the information age. 2nd Edition. Springer, Berlin 2003.
  2. ↑ Hubert Österle : Business Engineering: Process and System Development. Volume 1: Design Techniques. Springer, Heidelberg 1994. (2nd, improved edition 1995)
  3. ↑ Ulrike Baumöl , Reinhard Jung: Recursive Transformation: Development of the Business Engineering Map. In: Walter Brenner, Thomas Hess (Hrsg.): Information systems in science and practice - Festschrift for Hubert Österle. Business engineering. Springer, Berlin 2014.
  4. ^ A b c Robert Winter : Models, techniques and tools in business engineering . In: Hubert Österle, Robert Winter (Hrsg.): Business Engineering - On the way to the company of the information age . 2nd Edition. Springer, Berlin 2003, p. 88 .
  5. ↑ Thomas Hess , Christine Legner , Werner Esswein , Wolfgang Maaß , Christian Matt , Hubert Österle and others: Digital Life as a Topic of Business and Information Systems Engineering? Business and Information Systems Engineering (forthcoming).
  6. ↑ a b Jeroen van Meel, Henk Sol : Business Engineering: Dynamic Modeling Instruments for a Dynamic World. In: Simulation & Gaming. Vol. 27 (4), 1996, pp. 440-461.
  7. ↑ Hubert Österle, Dieter Blessing: Approaches of Business Engineering. In: HMD. 42, No. 241, 2005, pp. 7-17 ( online ).
  8. ↑ Ulrike Baumöl: Cultural Change in Process Management. In: Jan Brocke, Michael Rosemann (Eds.): Handbook on Business Process Management 2. Springer, Berlin 2010.
  9. ^ Hubert Österle, Robert Winter, Frank Höning, Stephan Kurpjuweit, Philipp Osl: Business Engineering: Core-Business-Metamodell . In: Wisu - The Business Studies . tape 36 , no. 2 , 2007, p. 191-194 .
  10. ↑ Business Engineering Forum ( Memento from December 17, 2012 in the web archive archive.today )
  11. ^ August-Wilhelm Scheer : ARIS: modeling methods, metamodels, applications. 4th edition. Springer, Berlin 2001.
  12. ^ Robert Winter, Ronny Fischer: Essential Layers, Artifacts, and Dependencies of Enterprise Architecture. In: Journal of Enterprise Architecture. Vol. 3 (2), 2007, pp. 7-18.
  13. ↑ Scheer 2001, p. 18.
  14. ↑ Aier et al. 2008.
  15. ↑ Otto K. Ferstl, Elmar J. Sinz: The approach of the semantic object model (SOM) for modeling business processes. In: Business Informatics. Vol. 37 (3), 1995, pp. 209-220.
  16. ↑ Danny Weinberger: ... and at the beginning there is the business requirement, right? In: OBJECT spectrum. Edition EAM, 2010.