INFORMATION SYSTEMS SELF-ASSESSMENT

Abstract

Assessing the Information Systems (IS) function within organisations was identified as one of the most critical issues of IS management in a 1983 study of leading IS professionals. This finding was further corroborated in a followup study in 1986. Both studies were conducted jointly by the Society of Information Management and the MIS Research Center at the University of Minnesota. However, Information Systems Assessment has long proven to be a daunting task for IS managers. While there are very few concrete instruments available to measure IS effectiveness, there is nevertheless much difference of opinion among both IS intellectuals and professionals regarding how best to perform assessment. This situation is compounded by the fact that most of the current approaches advocate the use of an independent consultant to lend a certain objectivity and professionalism to the process. While this requirement brings obvious benefits to the assessment process, it is not without certain practical disadvantages, considering the monetary and time constraints under which most companies operate and the need for on-going assessment at regular intervals. It is with these problems in mind that the Information Systems Self-Assessment approach has been developed to enable the IS manager to perform a systematic IS assessment of his/her own organisation. With its conceptual foundations in various prominent research papers in the current IS assessment literature, the Self-Assessment approach provides the IS manager with a comprehensive evaluative framework supplemented with detailed data collection checklists in a step-by-step approach to performing the assessment. It also seeks to take into account the unique characteristics of the organisation being assessed, by the use of Company-specific internal audit checklists and company-specific IS departmental goals, and by the employment of informal "evaluation teams" consisting of both the company's key IS staff and relevant end-users, in a "team" approach towards self-assessment. The eight major steps of the Self-Assessment process are: 1. Analyse the competitive environment of the organisation. 2. Solicit feedback from different evaluator viewpoints. 3. Analyze returned questionaires. 4. Form informal "evaluation teams". 5. Surface issues from "passive self-assessment". 6. Rank the key issues. 7. Draw up action plan to tackle top-ranked key issues. 8. Produce report of findings and make presentation to both Senior and User Management. The value of this approach is that while performing Self-Assessments is obviously considerably better than doing no assessments at all, regular Self-Assessments can also be complemented periodically with an assessment conducted by an independent consultant at appropriate points in time, thus tapping the inherent advantages of both types of assessments. Being more than just an academic framework or a theoretical process, the Self-Assessment approach has been tested and refined in an action research setting in which the process was applied by the researcher himself in his own organisation of which he is the IS manager. The experiences and lessons learned from this action research provide valuable insight for its general use in the industry and demonstrate that the approach is indeed a viable one. The benefits reaped by the organisation used in the action research as a result of performing the Self-Assessment is further testimony to this fact.