Information technology investment appraisal : prior and post implementation evaluation in Jordanian firms

Dissertant

al-Ghuwayri, Ali

Thesis advisor

al-Shaykh, Asim A. R.
al-Yasin, Husayn

Comitee Members

al-Hawari, Man
Abbud, Sattar Jabbar
Hattab, Izz al-Din Shakir Hasan

University

Arab Academy for Financial and Banking Sciences

Faculty

The Faculty of Information Systems and Technology

Department

Department of Management Information Systems

University Country

Jordan

Degree

Ph.D.

Degree Date

2008

English Abstract

There is a concern that information technology is not delivering anticipated values and benefits, adding to that the general consensus that many systems do not meet business needs.

Evaluation has been recommended as one of the primary means to establishing the worth of IT.

However, the lack of structured evaluation models could be the reason for not perceiving adequate benefits from evaluation.

This work focuses on two types of evaluation: Prior Operational Use evaluation sometimes referred to as Prior-Implementation evaluation, and Operational Use evaluation, sometimes referred to as Post-Implementation evaluation with regards to a set of factors that influence information technology evaluation types, such as: timing of the evaluation types, stakeholders involved in the evaluation process, evaluation criteria, perceived benefits and uses of evaluation, systems’ life-cycle, barriers of performing evaluation, and the gap in the outcomes between these two types of evaluation. In moving from theory to practice, a quantitative method is implemented by a survey of the top 106 organizations in Jordan. There are many limitations of the two types of evaluation (Prior Operational Use and Operational Use) in terms of timing of evaluation, involvement in evaluation, evaluation method and criteria, estimating systems’ economic life, cost, and benefits.

Results from quantitative method are integrated in a proposed evaluation model in attempts to cope with the limitations of the evaluation types.

Findings from this research indicated that the main reasons for the gap in the outcomes are Included : change of the market requirements, change of user requirements, the lack on agreement on evaluation criteria and method, unavailability of qualified evaluator and estimating the economic life of the systems.

Furthermore, Operational Use evaluations are being performed for the limited and short-term benefits reason of formalising the end of the development stage of the project and transfer the responsibility from the system developers to the user. Finally, the research recommends that, in order to realise the long-term benefits from Operational Use evaluation, the evaluators need to take a longer-term view of the system evaluation process and its development process, in doing so : the formal Operational Use evaluation should be performed when the system has had a chance to settle down and its impacts on users and organizations become visible.

In order to ensure the independence of the evaluation process and a more global set of criteria than those conceived by the system developers, evaluation should be managed and performed by groups other than the members of the development team.

The methodology for performing Operational Use evaluation may either be an independent internal or external department of a multi group evaluation team led by the users and the customers.

Main Subjects

Information Technology and Computer Science

Topics

• Management
• Evaluation
• Jordan
• Information technology

No. of Pages

147

Table of Contents

• APA
• MLA
• AMA

Language

English

Data Type

Arab Theses

Record ID

BIM-306210