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Purpose – This paper focuses on organizational change through the business process management approach. While “business process modeling” permits understanding process activities and their activities with other participants, “current reality tree (CRT)” technique promotes the identification of process constraints. The purpose of this study is to compare the results from applying both diagnostic techniques, process modeling, using the business process modeling notation, and root cause analysis, using the CRT. Design/methodology/approach – The comparison is made using a pre-experiment in which two teams conducted diagnoses concomitantly in the information technology management (ITM) process of one unit of the biggest and prestigious higher education institution (HEI) in Brazil. Findings – The modeling technique and the CRT should be considered complementary techniques, since applying one does not diminish or exclude the importance of using the other. Results were compared analyzing which dimensions of the process each technique highlighted: strategy, organization, activity/information and resources. Research limitations/implications – A possible limitation of this research is that the experiment was conducted in a single process and the result cannot be generalized to other processes. Practical implications – It may be noted that the main contribution of this study is the presentation of the steps of two techniques for process diagnosis. It is expected that with the reports on diagnoses outcomes, team's assessment and the perception of the managers presented here other improvement teams may use the results of this research as an inspiration to perform process diagnosis, and as basis for decision making to define which technique to use according to the specific needs of process improvement. Originality/value – The paper stands out the comparison of the technique application's outcomes. This study offers valuable insights to the organizations that are interested in restructuring their processes. It delineates many important benefits of such a diagnosis techniques. It also identifies possible pitfalls and recommends guidelines for the successful conduction of process diagnoses initiatives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]