IS Evaluation in the UK Public Sector: Emerging Research Themes and Issues

The concern that investment in Information Systems (IS) is not delivering anticipated value and benefits is compounded by the difficulty in demonstrating IS value using traditional mechanistic evaluation methods. This is currently an important issue in the UK pubic sector, where the audit commission is employing traditional IS evaluation approaches in external inspections. Using the current literature on IS evaluation, together with both previous and new case material to gain insight into IS evaluation practice, the authors argue that IS evaluation in the public sector is very different from the private sector, and that traditional IS evaluation approaches based upon economic factors are largely inappropriate in this domain and indeed can be ritualistic. The paper calls for UK public sector organisations and external audit bodies to review their IS evaluation practice and seek alternative approaches. Finally, the paper argues for a research agenda, which explores alternative, complementary interpretive IS evaluation approaches to help public sector organisations and external audit bodies understand and gauge the impact of IS.