Design matters for decision makers: Discovering IT investment alternatives

Useful business cases: value creation in IS projects

“…However, instead of narrowing down the value construct, we show the usefulness of a multidimensional IS value construct that is implicitly embedded in practice but simultaneously can be implicitly reflected in a supporting artefact such as a business case. This finding corroborates findings from previous action research approaching IS investments as involving design thinking (Frisk et al, 2014) and multi-criteria evaluation using value dials (Frisk et al, 2015). We employed three dimensions of IS value emphasizing the 1) monetary and pluralistic view, 2) summative and formative purpose, and 3) artefact and social manifestation (Figure 1).…”

“…Other researchers emphasize the pluralistic, formative, and social dimensions of IS value. This line of research indicates the importance of managerial action in creating value from IS while addressing the lack of clarity in goals and expected values of IS investmentsparticularly in public organizations (Frisk et al, 2014;Frisk et al, 2015;Rose et al, 2015b). This paper extends the latter line of research by focusing on the operational synthesis of value creation with business cases in IS projects.…”

“…In the following, we present the literature on IS value according to three dimensions that reflect key differences in the fundamental assumptions and understandings of IS value. Furthermore, we present literature on the value creation process based on benefits management research, which is a prominent approach to support value creation from IS investments (Ward & Daniel, 2006 (Kohli & Grover, 2008;Yassaee & Mettler, 2015), but in public organizations particularly, a broader pluralistic view on value is needed (Frisk et al, 2014). The research on IS in public organizations proposes numerous conceptualizations of value that include less tangible and measurable attributes (Bannister, 2002;Persson & Goldkuhl, 2010;Bannister & Connolly, 2014;Rose et al, 2015b).…”

“…The purpose of assessing IS value can broadly be described as summative or formative (Remenyi & Sherwood-Smith, 1999;Frisk et al, 2014). Summative accounts serve to form the basis for evaluating experience, impacts, and outcomes in terms of merit, worth, and significance (for example to help determine the resulting outcomes of an IS project).…”

“…These dimensions are grounded in previous research (e.g. Frisk et al, 2014;Rose et al, 2015b;Tallon, 2014;Yassaee & Mettler, 2015), however research efforts may often emphasize a single dimension rather than their concurrent integration.…”