Which statement describes business process reengineering most accurately?

• A. It refers to redesigning core business processes to improve performance.
• B. It refers to outsourcing of processes.
• C. It refers to outsourcing only IT processes.
• D. It refers to outsourcing HRM training exclusively.

Answer: (A)

The main idea being tested is that business process reengineering focuses on radical redesign of essential business processes to achieve dramatic improvements in performance, such as faster cycle times, lower costs, higher quality, and better customer satisfaction. It examines end-to-end workflows, not just isolated tasks, and looks to remove non-value-added steps, simplify handoffs, and often rethink technology, people, and organizational structures to align with strategic goals.

Outsourcing is a separate strategic choice that transfers activities to external providers. While a redesigned process might be implemented with outsourcing in some cases, the core of business process reengineering is rethinking and redesigning the internal processes themselves to achieve substantial performance gains, not simply shifting work to outside parties. That’s why the option describing outsourcing—whether of all processes, IT processes, or HR training exclusively—does not accurately define business process reengineering.