Ex ante evaluation of is projects in Institutions of higher learning in Kenya

Abstract

Information Systems (IS) has become ubiquitous in organizations; not only are Information Systems used for operational purposes, they are also employed in controlling, planning and strategic levels of management in organizations. This has led to ever increasing expenditure on IS and an accompanying increasing demand to measure the business value of the investment associated with IS. The need to measure/evaluate IS investments (projects) is further exacerbated by the 'productivity paradox', observed in these investments. Despite higher investments in IS, the resulting business value is not easily visible. As an organizational process, evaluation, plays a multifaceted role and, as such, it is a vital organizational function, strongly related to other management and decision making processes. One of the most important evaluations of any project is the ex ante evaluation. This evaluation which informs the go/no go decisions (approval) of projects is extremely important because it is through this evaluation that beneficial projects are picked and implemented and non beneficial ones dropped. This project explores the influence that ex ante evaluation has played in the approval for implementation of IS projects within the context of institutions of higher education in Kenya. The study seeks to establish -whether tRerores identified in the IS evaluation research studies apply within the Kenyan context, the difficulties encountered and contributions to approval. It is believed that insight into this area of IS project management will create interest and further study in this field of [S projects management and therefore contribute positively to improvement of IS projects management within the developing world context. Also, the collective knowledge base and experience of the institutions can form a rich source of information for other organizations both in the country and the region.