Assessing readiness for business process reengineering

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to propose how to minimize the risks of implementing business process reengineering (BPR) by measuring readiness. For this purpose, the paper proposes an assessment approach for readiness in BPR efforts based on the critical success and failure factors. Design/methodology/approach – A relevant literature review, which investigates success and failure indicators in BPR efforts is carried out and a new categorized list of indicators are proposed. This is a base for conducting a survey to measure the BPR readiness, which has been run in two companies and compared based on a diamond model. Findings – In this research, readiness indicators are determined based on critical success and failure factors. The readiness indicators include six categories. The first five categories, egalitarian leadership, collaborative working environment, top management commitment, supportive management, and use of information technology are positive indicators. The sixth category, resistance to change has a negative role. This paper reports survey results indicating BPR readiness in two Iranian companies. After comparing the position of the two cases, the paper offers several guidelines for amplifying the success points and decreasing failure points and hence, increasing the rate of success. Originality/value – High‐failure rate of BPR has been introduced as a main barrier in reengineering processes. In addition, it makes a fear, which in turn can be a failure factor. This paper tries to fill the gap in the literature on decreasing risk in BPR projects by introducing a BPR readiness assessment approach. In addition, the proposed questionnaire is generic and can be utilized in a facilitated manner.