Information Systems Investment and Evaluation: Mini-Track Introduction (original) (raw)

Approaching information system evaluation methodology and techniques: a comprehensive review

This paper advances our knowledge of information systems (IS) by drawing ideas and insights from IT/IS evaluation. The emergence and increasing pressure to invest in new IS architecture and infrastructures has become a high priority issue within organisations, and largely influenced by the need to deliver better value products and service through robust and responsive supply chains. With this in mind, business managers are seeking to use appropriate methods and techniques to appraise and justify the financial contribution of IS at strategic, operational and tactical levels. Thus, comprehensive but understandable methodologies are needed to solve the complicated project justification problems arising from the complexity of new technologies. Notwithstanding, a wide body of literature has emerged that sheds light on various methods for evaluating the cost and benefits of IT/IS investment, ranging from simple to very complex techniques. This paper sets out to provide a review of this literature in order to lend insights into our understanding of the plethora of reported research in the literature that has propagated investment justification and benefits management models and frameworks. We show that the IT/IS evaluation literature contributes significantly to scholarship on the IS.

Reviewing Interpretive Approaches for Evaluation of Information Systems Investments

rapport nr.: Report/IT University of Göteborg 2007: …, 2009

As information systems/technologies (IS/IT) become embedded in organizations, these systems cannot be isolated from important issues such as human intellect, culture, philosophy, politics and socio-organizational changes. Limited business resources on one hand and the various concerns and demands from different stakeholders on the other hand have led to an evergrowing need to evaluate IS/IT investments. In other words, due to the heavy rise of IS/IT costs IS/IT investments must be justified. Evaluation of IS/IT investments is generally taken to mean the identification and the measurement of capital expenditures spent on and the initial anticipated revenues gained from the deployments of these systems (IS/IT).

Management of information technology evaluation – the development of a managerial thesis

The aim is to address the approach and identify the assessment of the effectiveness of IT investment used by organisations, to develop a thesis of good practice in this area; and to test this thesis by reference to a focus group consisting of practitioners.The research began using the case study method to collect evidence and then content analysis was employed to analyse this evidence to identify empirical generalisations and thus develop a theory of IT investment, IT investment evaluation and IT benefit identification. Correspondence analysis was used on the case study data as one step in establishing the theory. A focus group was used to present the relevant theory and the models that were created. Finally, the practical management guidelines suggested by the research and the models and content analysis figures were presented to practitioners as a cross-validation process and the results reported. The results of this research are an objectively developed theory of how IT investments are formulated and evaluated and how IT investment benefits are identified.

A Holistic Framework on Information Systems Evaluation with a Case Analysis

This paper presents a framework for understanding IS evaluation in its broader context. The role of IS evaluation is emphasised on integrating the IS development process into business development process. The framework is applied to analyze a single IS project in details. The results show that sometimes formal IS evaluation might not be important or necessary, but rather it may be more important, with an informal and flexible evaluation process, to quickly gain experience of a new kind of business and system to maintain a leading position in the competitive market.

DIFFERENT ROLES OF EVALUATION IN INFORMATION SYSTEMS RESEARCH

IS scholars perform studies of how to evaluate IS and different IS related phenomena, like e.g. methods and strategies. Evaluation is also used as a research approach in many IS research studies. However, the use and interest of evaluation seem to be rather fragmented and diversified in the IS field. The purpose of this paper is to bring more structure to evaluation in IS research.

Investigation of factors that strongly influence the outcomes of information technology (IT) systems investments

2002

Since the early 1960s, commercial computing has seen major advances in Software Engineering and Management, enabling progressively greater outcome predictability of Information Technology Business Systems Products (ITBSPs). However, I. T. Systems Investments (ITSIS) that depend on ITBSP's to achieve their goals, have not enjoyed a similar increase in outcome predictability and acceptance. To better understand this phenomenonr, an in depth study of the experiences of 45 managers and consultants covering 9 1. T. Systems Investments across 6 organisations was conducted. The Systems Investments were selected as being either suiyrisingly successful or surprisingly problematic. This paper discusses a model that integrates several findings about the type of work, evolutionary phases, domains of activity and impact factors that influence the conduct and outcomes of I.T. Systems Investments. The findings reported here were shared by successful but not problematic I.T. Systems Investments. Guidelines for dejining and managing the work types reported here have also been developed in the research and these are summarised.