Evaluating investments in IT

Evaluating the costs and benefits of IT projects is currently a major issue for senior general managers. This paper focuses on a particular aspect of the problem: how organizations appraise IT investments in taking the decision whether to go ahead with them or not. The paper looks first at the different roles of evaluation; second at what is done in practice and third at what might be done given the wide range of techniques that are available and the widely different circumstances in which appraisal is undertaken. A speculative heuristic is proposed for matching an evaluation method with a particular situation. The method is presented in the hope of stimulating further research into the matching problem.