Seminar - Ali Jaafari - Measuring the Performance of IT and Business Transformation Projects: Framework, Criteria and Assessment Methodologies

Wednesday, August 11, 2004, 1.10 - 1.50 pm
Civil Engineering Lecture Room 3

Abstract

IT and Business Transformative projects have been subject of considerable debate and controversy since 1990. Investment on IT projects and systems in the US alone amounts to billions of dollars annually. Repeated recent surveys (for example by the Standish Group) have shown that a large proportion of IT projects fail to deliver their intended benefits. The author’s research shows that there is no established methodology by which one can measure the success or failure of such projects, and that different parties to a single project have different criteria for success or failure. The author has developed an appropriate framework, criteria and methodology for objective assessment of IT projects, thereby guiding the debate on this front. Questions to consider embrace both definition and assessment of appropriate hard and soft key success indicators (representing IT project value proposition) together with an appropriate set of metrics to support the same, circumstances to use these and the manner these can be linked to the corporate goals and strategies.