A multiple criteria decision model for information system project selection

Abstract

It has been widely recognized that the selection of information system (IS) is a critical part of IS planning. Multiple factors that impact the decision to select an appropriate set of IS projects include project risk, corporate goals, benefits, the availability of scarce IS resources and the interdependencies that exist among candidate IS projects. Existing methods for IS project selection do not include all these critiera in one decision model. In this paper, project selection models in other disciplines, such as R&D, capital budgeting, etc., are synthesized to develop an IS project selection model that explicitly incorporates all of these factors. Importantly, the proposed model provides a method to take advantage of hardware and software sharing among IS applications. The decision model is formulated as a nonlinear 0–1 goal programming model and represents an improvement over currently available project selection models. The model is validated by applying it to real-world IS project selection data.