Investment evaluation within project management: an information systems perspective

This paper is seeking to make a contribution through exploring project management from the perspective of information systems (IS) investment evaluation. Organizational investments in IS are significant in financial terms and, as a result, management would appear set to increasingly scrutinize such expenditure through tighter forms of decision-making and corporate governance. In turn, this has increased the motivation of project managers to appropriately evaluate the impact of their IS before, during and after the investments are signed off. This perspective is not restricted to any one industry sector, with the author seeking motivation for a better understanding of investment evaluation within a project management context. This paper sets out to explain why and how investment evaluation should be embedded in project management in order to support an increase in the effectiveness of project management, thereby increasing the prospects of project success. While doing so, the reader will be provided with several touch-points that serve to outline the purpose and challenges facing those seeking to evaluate their investments. The author starts off with a contextualization of project management and its phased activities, such that a clear understanding of the contribution that investment evaluation plays within robust project management can be demonstrated. Then, the perspective of investment versus consumption is presented, grounded within the strategic grid, which classifies information technology-based projects as either: strategic, turnaround, factory or support. The author then presents evaluation as a life-cycle process, where evaluation is classified into four distinctive phases, namely ex-ante evaluation, metrics, command and control and ex-post evaluation, in doing so, emphasizing that evaluation needs to be seen as a process that runs through the life cycle of a project rather than as a hurdle that needs to be cleared to ensure financial approval.