Business Process Re-engineering (BPR) of the Navy's Information Professional (IP) Community's Continuing Education Unit (CEU) tracking process

Abstract

This thesis will analyze how the United States Navy's Information Professional (IP) Community is currently managing the Continuing Education Unit (CEU) Program, propose and develop a technical solution that could be implemented by Commander, Naval Network Warfare Command (NETWARCOM) to minimize the current management challenge. The IP Community has a fiscal year requirement to obtain a certain number of CEUs. The process of tracking these CEUs is currently manually performed using a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet. This thesis examines the feasibility and effectiveness of redesigning the CEU tracking process in light of modern Business Process Re-engineering (BPR) methodologies that incorporate contemporary information technology. The "AS-IS" process is identified using the Knowledge-Value Added (KVA) and cost methodologies and modeled using Microsoft Visio software tool to identify pertinent redesign recommendations. From those recommendations, a "TO-BE" process is determined and a web-based prototype system, Reengineered Continuing Education Unit Tracking Tool, is developed using basic tools such as Microsoft Access and Dream Weaver Active Server Pages (ASP) to demonstrate the viability, value and efficiency added to implementing the necessary functionality. The benefits of replacing the current manual system with a web-based system are, reduced manpower hours, increased accuracy, and consistency in the process.