A Systemic Approach for Information Systems Evaluation

Abstract

Traditionally, information technology (IT) evaluation, pre-implementation appraisals, and post-implementation reviews have been characterised as economical, tangible, and hard in nature. The literature review on IT evaluation shows a great bias towards using economical and tangible measures that represent the management’s view of what is ‘good’ and ‘bad’, which had been described as narrow in scope and limited in use. Smithson and Hirschheim (1998) explain that “there has been an increasing concern that narrow cost benefit studies are too limited and there is a need to develop a wider view of the impact of a new system.” Ezingeard (1998) emphasises the importance of looking at the impact of IS on both the overall system and the whole organisation.