Operational Use evaluation of IT investments: An investigation into potential benefits

The process of evaluation of IT projects often seems to cease just as quantifiable results start to become available – in Operational Use (OU). This paper investigates OU IT evaluation and contrasts it with the evaluation undertaken during the specification, construction, and testing of IT projects; which we choose to call Prior Operational Use (POU) to distinguish it from OU. Analysis of 123 usable responses from the FTSE 500 companies shows that many companies appear not to undertake OU evaluation. However, where OU evaluation was conducted, it appears to be of clear value to the organisations. Benefits claimed include the ability to assess deviations from their original plans, and to provide a basis for validating the original methods used (in their POU evaluations).