How does PISO compare with BPR?

Those familiar with Business Process Re-engineering (BPR) have found it useful to consider PISO as a stripped-down, method-based, do-it-yourself (DIY) version of it. The "method-based" aspect refers to its clearly defined framework, with specified stages and steps.

The "DIY" aspect refers to the fact that the PISO approach is easy to learn and intended to be used by the employees who actually carry out the functions that are being re-engineered. A typical "consultancy" approach involves paying the business consultant a sometimes significant sum for the time he/she spends consulting with employees - i.e. learning what they know.

PISO takes the opposite approach, requiring an organisation to simply have a PISO trainer spend a few hours teaching employees the analysis techniques the consultant would use. The employees then go ahead and use these techniques to agree and engineer changes - and because the changes have been worked out by themselves as "stakeholders" in the changes, there is far less resistance to implementation. PISO has been found to have a high success rate.

As well as being used on its own to improve a wide range of business and manufacturing processes, it has provided "bogged-down" BPR projects with radically positive outcomes.