Business Engineering includes knowledge of business administration, technology (engineering) and information technology (IT) and applies it to create business models which take into account some technical and economic aspects as well as organizational, cultural and even political ones. Thus, we can define the Business Engineering as a trans-disciplinary field of knowledge, including design, implementation and management of integrated anthropo-technical systems, with particular emphasis put on the organizational aspects and information technology. The basic methods of research in the field of Business Engineering are: a systems and process approach, as well as modeling and simulation of the business processes. This approach is based on the innovative management transformation, using integrated methods from other disciplines, such as:
- systems engineering,
- IT technology and innovation,
- strategic management,
- risk management,
- quality management, and
- organizational design (human factors).
The traditional engineering disciplines such as mechanical, civil, and electrical engineering, etc. refer to physical objects that are visible and generally easy for modelling. Business Engineering, that had emerged in the last decades is a new kind of engineering, which significantly differs from existing patterns. It is assumed that any organization can be modeled as a complex structure (eg. network) with a system of interactions of a cause-effect chains, feedbacks and other external influences (eg. threats and disturbances). Business Engineering tools allow to establish better understanding and management of organizations by the searching for rational strategy and responding to questions, such as e.g .:
- What is broken in your organization?
- Are you aware of it?
- Which things need to be fixed first?
- How do you prioritize changes or improvements?
- What are the long-term impacts of current problems and initiatives?
- How do you respond to changing external and internal forces?
- How do you leverage the installed base of information technology (IT), and get the most out of this new technology?
- What should we do in employee training and recruitment?
Business engineers should have skills enabling them to assess following business potential of IT innovations, create strategic visions, analyze and redesign business processes, plan and control transformation projects, and get people actively involved in transformation processes.