Evaluation and Information Technology

Abstract

It is important to evaluate information technology because if you don’t assess resultsfrom IT, research (e.g., Markus et al., 2000, p. 255) shows that you will not achieve thegoals you are pursuing. Moreover, investments in information technology hardware,software, and personnel have become a larger portion of the budgets of governments atevery level so it makes sense to determine whether these expenditures are paying off.More importantly, a well-designed evaluation program can provide feedback on how toimprove IT services. In this chapter, I review basic concepts of evaluation and apply themto the evaluation of information technology. I draw from research literature to identifymodels and approaches that have been employed in assessing the value and performanceof information technology. Finally I look at some actual evaluation measures used byvarious governments to assess their information technology function.