Information Technology Evaluation Methods and Management

Book excerpt: The evaluation of IT and its business value are the subject of many academic and business discussions. Investments in IT are growing extensively, and business managers worry about the fact that the benefits might not be as high as expected. This phenomenon is often called the IT investment paradox or the IT Black Hole: large sums are invested in IT that seem to be swallowed by a large black hole without rendering many returns. How to measure the benefits of IT is the concern of this book titled Information Technology Evaluation Methods and Management. The different IT evaluation approaches and methods are discussed and illustrated with cases: traditional financial evaluations such as the return on investment, information economics and the recently introduced IT Balanced Scorecard. The latter approach is proposed as an ideal mechanism to support the IT/business alignment process and its related IT governance process. Among some of the topics included in this book are: software measurement; ERP project evaluation; strategic electronic commerce evaluation.