Prioritising information systems projects in higher education

Emerald - Tập 20 Số 4 - Trang 152-158 - 2003
R. Dutta1, T.F. Burgess2
1R. Dutta is a post‐graduate student at Leeds University Business School, University of Leeds, Leeds, UK.
2T.F. Burgess is a Senior Lecturer, at Leeds University Business School, University of Leeds, Leeds, UK.

Tóm tắt

This paper focuses on solving the problem faced by higher education institutions (HEIs) when prioritising information systems (IS) projects. In many instances HEIs face many more potential IS projects than they can cope with. Making good decisions as to which projects should be supported becomes a complex but crucial issue. In practice, managers may resort to simple heuristics or rules of thumb to decide on projects that should be evaluated against competing objectives. In such complex situations structured approaches exist such as multi‐criteria decision making. The case study reported here explores the application of such a technique, simple multi‐attribute rating technique (SMART), to support the IS Department of Leeds University when prioritising IS projects.

Tài liệu tham khảo

Applegate, L.M., McFarlan, F.W. and McKenney, J.L. (2000), Corporate Information Systems Management: Text and Cases, Irwin, Chicago, IL. Belton, V. and Goodwin, P. (1996), “Remarks on the application of the analytic hierarchy process to judgemental forecasting”, International Journal of Forecasting, Vol. 12, pp. 155‐61. Bensaou, M. and Earl, M. (1998), “The right mind set for managing information technology”, Harvard Business Review, September‐October, pp. 119‐28. Boddy, D. and Macbeth, D.K. (2000), “Prescriptions for managing change: a survey of their effects in projects to implement collaborative working between organisations”, International Journal of Project Management, Vol. 18 No. 5, pp. 297‐306. Brownlow, S.A. and Watson, S.R. (1987), “Structuring multi‐attribute value hierarchies”, Journal of Operational Research Society, Vol. 38, pp. 309‐17. Davenport, T.H. (1998), “Putting the enterprise into the enterprise system”, Harvard Business Review, Vol. 76 No. 4, pp. 121‐32. Edwards, W. (1997), “How to use multi‐attribute utility theory for social decision making”, IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man and Cybernetics, Vol. 7, pp. 326‐40. Edwards, W. and Barron, F.H. (1994), “SMART and SMARTER: improved simple methods for multi‐attribute utility measurement”, Organisational Behaviour and Human Decision Processes, Vol. 60, pp. 306‐25. Gilley, K.M. and Rasheed, A. (2000), “Making more by doing less: as analysis of outsourcing and its effects on firm performance”, Journal of Management, Vol. 26 No. 4, pp. 763‐90. Golden, B.L., Harker, P.T. and Wasil, E.A. (1989), The Analytic Hierarchy Process – Applications and Studies, Springer‐Verlag, New York, NY. Goodwin, P. and Wright, G. (2000), Decision Analysis or Management Judgement, John Wiley and Sons, Chichester. Keil, M. and Robey, D. (1999), “Turning around troubled software projects: an exploratory study of the de‐escalation of commitment to failing curses of action”, Journal of Management Information Systems, Vol. 15 No. 4, Spring, pp. 63‐87. Krumm, F.V. and Rolle, C.F. (1992), “Management and application of decision and risk analysis in Du Pont”, Interfaces, Vol. 22 No. 6, pp. 84‐93. McFarlan, F.W. and Nolan, R.L. (1995), “How to manage an IT outsourcing alliance”, Sloan Management Review, Vol. 36 No. 2, pp. 9‐24. Robson, W. (1997), Strategic Management and Information Systems, 2nd ed., Pitman, London. Saaty, L. (1992), Multi‐Criteria Decision Making – The Analytic Hierarchy Process, RWS Publications, Pittsburgh, PA. Salo, A. and Hamalainen, R.P. (1997), “On the measurement of preferences in the Analytic Hierarchy Process (and comments by Belton, V., Choo, E., Donegan, T., Gear, T., Saatu, T., Schomer, B., Stan, A., Weber, M. and Wedley, B.)”, Journal of Multi‐Criteria Decision Analyisis, Vol. 6 No. 6, pp. 309‐43. Stam, A. and Silva, A.P.D. (1997), “Stochastic judgements in the AHP: the measurement of rank reversal probabilities”, Decision Sciences, Vol. 28 No. 3, pp. 655‐88. Von Winterfeldt, D. and Edwards, W. (1986), Decision Analysis and Behavioural Research, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.