A typology of different forms of business process standardisation (BPS)

Abstract

Organisations are increasingly adopting a process-centric view in order to compete and thrive. Business Process Standardisation (BPS) is a strategy for improved efficiency and effectiveness of business processes. BPS approaches are known to vary in practice, but are ill-understood. Through inductive content analysis of 18 published BPS case studies we identify three key decisions of the BPS approach: (i) Origin of standardisation (de facto or de jure), (ii) Optimisation of the master process (yes or no), and (iii) Choice of master process (internal exemplar, internal best-of-breed, or external exemplar) thus yielding twelve (2 × 2 × 3) alternative BPS types. This typology can serve as a useful tool for researchers investigating the BPS concept and may provide insight for practitioners when selecting an appropriate form of BPS. Further development, extension, and evaluation of the typology are suggested as future research.