BUSINESS PROCESS ANALYTICS AND CHANGE ASSIGNMENT: Reading Circle

Purpose

To encourage students to expand their thinking through reading and sharing of ideas.

Details

Background

A reading circle is a small, peer-led discussion group whose members read the same article. Your reading circle will focus on an area of business process management and change. Reading circles are successful when students come prepared by having read the article and by participating in a discussion about the article. This allows students to share the results of their research and investigations with other members of their team, and gather feedback regarding thoughts and ideas.

Requirements

Students are required to work in a team (3-5 students). Each individual student is required to:

• Select a peer reviewed journal article on some area of business process management and change related to the course, or an area which extends course ideas (see list of potential topic areas). Confirm the appropriateness of the journal article with the course lecturer and/or tutor before completing this assignment.

• Provide a copy of the selected journal article to team members by the scheduled tutorial in week 3. For Mt Helen students, a team forum will be provided in moodle (partner students discuss the best approach with your lecturer / tutor).

• Lead a face-to-face discussion (approximately 10 minutes) of your team, based on your selected journal article, in the scheduled tutorial time during weeks 4 - 6 (each team member will negotiate a designated discussion week). You should read and write a summary of the key ideas the article is presenting and prepare some questions as a starting point for discussion with your team members, prior to your designated discussion week.

• Following the face-to-face discussions, select any one of their team member's articles and provide a written review of 200-250 words to the team forum in moodle detailing your thoughts, impressions and reactions to each article (partner students discuss the best approach with your lecturer / tutor).

• Write a review (approximately 1200-1500 words) of the journal article, providing a critique of your individual ideas. Also include comments and conclusions made by other team members in your reading circle, and your reflections as a result of these discussions.

• The review should be supported by references from literature, demonstrating wider reading and critical thinking. You should submit your endnote library file along with your assignment.

• As an appendix to your report include a personal reflection of 200-250 words which outlines your experience in the reading circle. For example, how did you go about locating your article? Why did you select that particular article? How did you go about preparing for your presentation to your team reading circle? How useful did you find the comments of your team members? How did this assessment extend your knowledge and thinking about this area? etc...

A list of potential topic areas is provided below:

• origins and history of BPM
• process architecture
• process modelling
• process quality assurance
• root cause analysis
• process performance measures
• process redesign and reengineering
• process automation.