Using Probabilistic Feature Models to Determine Success Criteria for ICT Projects

Since the 1960\u27s many authors accepted the triple constraints (time, cost, specification) as a standard measure of success and this still appears to be extremely important in evaluating the success of ICT projects. However, an ICT project cannot always be seen as a complete success or a complete failure. Moreover, the parties involved may perceive the terms “success” or “failure” differently. The authors developed a quasi-experiment (gaming) in order to determine the criteria used by the different parties involved to judge the success of an ICT project. The results of this quasi experiment were analysed using probabilistic feature models for frequency data – PMD-models. This research indicates that the impact of the triple constraints on the judgement of success is rather small. Other criteria, as there are user happiness and financial or commercial success are far more important. Furthermore, parties who’s involvement ceases after the handover tend to concentrate more on budget and satisfying the parties involved, while the other parties concentrate more on time limits, predefined specifications and long-term financial or commercial success

Evaluation of the applicability of investment appraisal techniques for assessing the business value of IS services.

There is a consensus among academics and practitioners that ICT investments should be carefully justified, measured and controlled. This is not different for the development of a service architecture or the development of particular services as such. In practice, the traditional capital investment appraisal techniques (CIAT’s) such as payback period or net present value are by far the most used techniques for assessing the feasibility of ICT investments. Nevertheless, serious doubts about the fitness of these techniques in a service based value net environment arise. Value nets have special characteristics such as high flexibility and agility, re-use of services,… that makes the use of these techniques very difficult and the reliability of the outcome most uncertain. Efforts are made to find more appropriate techniques. In the past, CIAT’s have been adjusted so that these techniques become more reliable in an ICT environment and new justification methods and techniques have been developed. However neither these adjusted techniques nor the new techniques are frequently used. This might be explained by the fact that the outcome of these techniques is difficult to interpret and to use and the fact that some significant problems (like the estimation of hidden costs) remain unsolved. Moreover, most of the new techniques are still in the conceptual phase. In this paper we evaluate these adjusted and new techniques in the light of service oriented architectures. We will argue that non of the techniques offers a good solution for assessing the business value of IS services. Despite the existence of a wealth of literature, the IS community appears to be no nearer to a solution to many problems associated with ICT appraisal. This is potentially problematic when dealing with investments in emerging technology such as IS services or service architectures. Since all techniques presented in the article have their drawbacks, it is safe to say that reliance on a sole technique may lead to sub-optimalisation or even failure. Therefore it makes sense to use a mixture of techniques, eliminating or diminishing the weaknesses of each of the techniques used. We strongly recommend a multi-layer evaluation process, or an evaluation process derived from the balanced scorecard, for the appraisal of investments in services or service architectures.

Customer Relationship Management Systems Research: Voids in the Current Literature

The status of the Customer Relationship Management (CRM) literature is investigated for the period of 2000 to 2004 in order to provide an overview of academic writing on the subject and to identify blind spots in the present literature. The top ten MIS journals and proceedings of four international conferences were systematically screened. Selected publications were reviewed in a structured way and categorized according to the different phases in the CRM lifecycle: adoption, acquisition, implementation, use & maintenance, evolution and retirement. It appears that less attention has been paid to implementation issues and that the evolution and retirement phases have not sufficiently been explored yet. With this structured overview of the literature and the identification of the voids, this paper offers suggestions for further research in the area and hopes not only to contribute to the orientation of our own research, but also to inspire future CRM research of peer researchers in our field

The Triple Constraints: A valid set of criteria to measure IS-project success?

Since the 1960's many authors accepted the triple constraints (time, cost, specification) as a standard measure of success and this still appears to be extremely important in evaluating the success of ICT projects. However, the parties involved may perceive the terms “success” or “failure” differently. A quasi-experiment (gaming) was developed to determine the measures for success used by the different parties involved in an ICT project. The results of this quasi experiment were analysed using probabilistic feature models. This research indicates that the impact of the triple constraints on the judgement of success is rather small. Other criteria, as there are user happiness and financial or commercial success are far more important.Management of IS projects; success criteria; Probabilistic feature models, triple constraints

Can resource dependence and coercive isomorphism explain nonprofit organizations' compliance with reporting standards?

Nonprofit organizations worldwide are confronted with an increasing demand for accountability and improved financial transparency. Financial reporting by nonprofit organizations is no longer an exception; it has become a rule. The usefulness of a financial report to an organization's stakeholders depends on its quality. The latter is safeguarded by reporting standards as well as the commitment of the organization to fully implement these standards. Although resource dependence and coercive isomorphism have been used in earlier nonprofit organization research, no empirical research has linked these theories to compliance with financial reporting standards. Using a unique setting in which a large number of (very) large Belgian nonprofit organizations are confronted with far-reaching changes in financial reporting regulations, the effect of resource dependence and coercive isomorphism on accounting and financial reporting compliance is documented

Evaluation of the applicability of investment appraisal techniques for assessing the business value of IS services

There is a consensus among academics and practitioners that ICT investments should be carefully justified, measured and controlled. This is not different for the development of a service architecture or the development of particular services as such. In practice, the traditional capital investment appraisal techniques (CIAT’s) such as payback period or net present value are by far the most used techniques for assessing the feasibility of ICT investments. Nevertheless, serious doubts about the fitness of these techniques in a service based value net environment arise. Value nets have special characteristics such as high flexibility and agility, re-use of services,… that makes the use of these techniques very difficult and the reliability of the outcome most uncertain. Efforts are made to find more appropriate techniques. In the past, CIAT’s have been adjusted so that these techniques become more reliable in an ICT environment and new justification methods and techniques have been developed. However neither these adjusted techniques nor the new techniques are frequently used. This might be explained by the fact that the outcome of these techniques is difficult to interpret and to use and the fact that some significant problems (like the estimation of hidden costs) remain unsolved. Moreover, most of the new techniques are still in the conceptual phase. In this paper we evaluate these adjusted and new techniques in the light of service oriented architectures. We will argue that non of the techniques offers a good solution for assessing the business value of IS services. Despite the existence of a wealth of literature, the IS community appears to be no nearer to a solution to many problems associated with ICT appraisal. This is potentially problematic when dealing with investments in emerging technology such as IS services or service architectures. Since all techniques presented in the article have their drawbacks, it is safe to say that reliance on a sole technique may lead to sub-optimalisation or even failure. Therefore it makes sense to use a mixture of techniques, eliminating or diminishing the weaknesses of each of the techniques used. We strongly recommend a multi-layer evaluation process, or an evaluation process derived from the balanced scorecard, for the appraisal of investments in services or service architectures.status: publishe

Can resource dependence explain not-for-profit organizations' compliance with reporting standards?

nrpages: 28status: publishe

Study on ERP II Decisions under Asymmetric Information: an Agency Approach

In this paper, the optimization investment policy decision of an ERP II implementation has been analyzed under different information conditions. ERP II implementing options’ decision-optimizing models were established. In these models, both clients and vendors try to pursue their own benefits. Based upon the principal-agent theory, the models show how a principal can force an agent to pursue his benefits. Finally, a simulation experiment regarding ERP II implementing options was made. The analysis result of ERP II implementing options is verified.status: publishe