Information technology evaluation: issues and challenges

To justify an increase in information technology (IT) spending and to understand utilization of limited organizational resources on IT, the correlation between IT and business performance has been of great interest to business managers. However, business managers face issues and challenges in finding out how and to what extent IT is able to deliver the intended benefits. The purpose of this paper is to examine IT evaluation issues and challenges faced by information systems (IS) researchers, IS specialists, and business managers.

This paper begins by reviewing the disparate discussions in past literature on IT evaluation issues and challenges. It then provides a synthesis of the disparate discussions by identifying eight issues and challenges in IT evaluation.

The eight issues and challenges identified are: evaluation scope, evaluation timing, unit of analysis, level of analysis, different perspectives, different dimensions, different measures, and underpinning theoretical frameworks. It concludes with some suggestions on ways to improve IT evaluation practices.

This paper posits that before a pragmatic IT evaluation approach can be developed, it is necessary to first understand the issues and challenges faced by IS researchers, IS specialists, and business managers in IT evaluation. Having identified the eight issues and challenges, this paper provides pointers on what needs to be considered when conducting IT evaluation.