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Strategic information technology management: Perspectives on organizational growth and competitive advantage
Book reviews
gossip. This section ends with a chapter on dealing with swarms of failures. The book ends with an epilogue on Zeroeth-Order Measurement that suggests four basic steps to achieve it: 1. compose a project of well-defined and measurable tasks; 2. create and maintain a public view of project progress; 3. document the requirements about what is meant by quality; 4. review to measure every result of progress toward quality. ‘Zeroeth-order measurement the Zeroeth Law of Software
is related to Engineering:
If you don’t care about quality, you can achieve any other objective. ’ My conclusion is that if you don’t care about quality, don’t read this book. If you do care about quality, read it. References Sahir, V, et al. (1991) The Satir Model, Family Therapy and Beyond Science and Behavior Books, Palo Alto, CA Weinberg, G M (1992) Quality Software Management, Vol 1, Systems Thinking Dorset House Publishing Company, New York
Clay Sprowls University of California Los Angeles, USA
Strategic Information Technology Management: Perspectives on Organizational Growth and Competitive Advantage Rajiv D Banker, Robert J Kauffman and MO Adam Mahmood (eds) Idea Group Publishing Harrisburg PA (1993) 704pp $84.95 (+ $12 shipping to UK) ISBN 1 878289 16 0 This book contains a wealth of valuable information and useful insights for those who are concerned with such important issues as the economic evaluation of information technology (IT) projects, the overall
impact of IT on the economic performance of industrial firms, defining criteria for allocation of resources to IT investments, and the measurement of productivity for information workers. It provides useful advice and innovative approaches for research investigations in these areas, and constructive ideas for the design of research projects. The editors are distinguished scholars who have published and lectured extensively in these topics; their expertise enabled them to select the best articles from among those contributed, edit them constructively, and organize the chosen ones logically. All but two of the 36 authors are academics, and only three reside outside the USA and Canada. The book might have benefited from a broader international perspective and from having more practitioners, but the list does include many of the best known names in our discipline. To avoid listing some of them and not others, I have chosen not to use any of the authors’ names in this review. It is unfortunate, however, that such a misleading title was chosen for this otherwise impressive book. Strategic Information Technology Management implies that it will provide insights for managers in better ways of managing IT so as to contribute to strategic success, or at least insights for researchers in developing research approaches towards better management methods. The subtitle, Perspectives on Organizational Growth and Competitive Advantage, suggests that the articles will focus on using IT for revenue enhancement and market share enlargement rather than for its traditional role of cost cutting. There is very little in this volume on those topics. One article discusses the role of IT in responsive systems, and there are numerous brief references to strategy in other articles, but the dominating theme throughout the book is the measurement of business value. Certainly this is an important issue for MIS practitioners and researchers, but it is only one component of strategic IT management. My concern is that those potential readers who are most interested in evaluation, justification and measurement issues will
Journal of Strategic Information Systems 1994 Volume 3 Number 2
149
Book reviews
ignore the book because of its title, and that those readers who are looking for discussion of strategic issues will be disappointed. It is not difficult to understand how such a mismatch can occur; the title had been chosen long in advance, and the best of the contributed articles were focused on the business value of IT. At that point, it seems to me, a new title would have been appropriate, but perhaps the publisher felt it was too late for that. The book is organized in three large sections. The first, ‘Frameworks for assessing the strategic and economic vaiue of IT’, leads off with the transcript of a debate conducted at the 1991 ICIS on the desirability of using a case study approach to the study of IT business value, versus the use of formal models. Other articles discuss the economic relationships between IS application portfolios and organizational strategy, using such techniques as marginal analysis, cost-benefit analysis, and financial options theory in IT investment decisions, and a model for MIS planning. The second section, ‘Perspectives on investments in new ITS’, contains a number of case studies from various industries, with the primary focus on assessing the benefits of the investment. There are cases on responsive systems, a public electronic network, using electronic data interchange (EDI) in the insurance industry, and the implementation of the ‘Big Bang’ system at the London Stock Exchange. In the Big Bang system, the authors note that the Exchange itself and the investing public derived substantial benefits but that the member firms, who actually paid for the system, are dissatisfied because of the perception that they would have been better off without the system. The authors also point out that these firms, like many other organizations, tend to measure the value of an IT investment by comparing their postimplementation results with their prior performance. If their competitors modernize and they do not, however, the firm may not survive, so comparisons to the status quo are inappropriate. Other topics covered include a discussion of relevant research methods 150
for measuring the economic impacts of EDI, a methodology for study of interorganizational systems, and knowledge worker productivity. Part III, the final section, is entitled ‘Empirical studies of information technology value’. This set of articles is somewhat broader in perspective and is perhaps more useful from a practitioner’s point-ofview than the previous sections. The articles contain such insights as: system performance measures should be consistent with the system’s objectives; the use of IT may lead to improved performance, but on the other hand it may be low performance that leads to the use of IT; in measuring IT effectiveness, distinguish between firms that implement well and those which do not; failure to make this distinction may have led to incorrect conclusions about IT value. There is also an excellent article on IT infrastructure and on why it is so difficult to justify in advance and to measure its impact after implementation. There is an extensive bibliography that is placed, more usefully for the reader, at the end of the volume, in contrast to most edited books for which the references are at the end of each chapter. Unfortunately, this welcome innovation is marred by extensive redundancy in the bibligraphy; one article is listed seven times and a number of others are listed multiple times. Overall, I recommend this book fOTthose who are interested in well-written and insightful discussions of the problems of IT evaluation and justification and the measurement of IT business value. It should be useful for most .7%S readers. For me, some of the articles were of more interest than others, particularly the Big Bang paper, the infrastructure article, and several more in Part III. Other readers will have other favourites, but almost all of the papers provide valuable ideas.
Journal of StrategicInformation
Bruce Rallier University of Bahimore USA
Systems 1994 Volume
3 Number 2
gossip. This section ends with a chapter on dealing with swarms of failures. The book ends with an epilogue on Zeroeth-Order Measurement that suggests four basic steps to achieve it: 1. compose a project of well-defined and measurable tasks; 2. create and maintain a public view of project progress; 3. document the requirements about what is meant by quality; 4. review to measure every result of progress toward quality. ‘Zeroeth-order measurement the Zeroeth Law of Software
is related to Engineering:
If you don’t care about quality, you can achieve any other objective. ’ My conclusion is that if you don’t care about quality, don’t read this book. If you do care about quality, read it. References Sahir, V, et al. (1991) The Satir Model, Family Therapy and Beyond Science and Behavior Books, Palo Alto, CA Weinberg, G M (1992) Quality Software Management, Vol 1, Systems Thinking Dorset House Publishing Company, New York
Clay Sprowls University of California Los Angeles, USA
Strategic Information Technology Management: Perspectives on Organizational Growth and Competitive Advantage Rajiv D Banker, Robert J Kauffman and MO Adam Mahmood (eds) Idea Group Publishing Harrisburg PA (1993) 704pp $84.95 (+ $12 shipping to UK) ISBN 1 878289 16 0 This book contains a wealth of valuable information and useful insights for those who are concerned with such important issues as the economic evaluation of information technology (IT) projects, the overall
impact of IT on the economic performance of industrial firms, defining criteria for allocation of resources to IT investments, and the measurement of productivity for information workers. It provides useful advice and innovative approaches for research investigations in these areas, and constructive ideas for the design of research projects. The editors are distinguished scholars who have published and lectured extensively in these topics; their expertise enabled them to select the best articles from among those contributed, edit them constructively, and organize the chosen ones logically. All but two of the 36 authors are academics, and only three reside outside the USA and Canada. The book might have benefited from a broader international perspective and from having more practitioners, but the list does include many of the best known names in our discipline. To avoid listing some of them and not others, I have chosen not to use any of the authors’ names in this review. It is unfortunate, however, that such a misleading title was chosen for this otherwise impressive book. Strategic Information Technology Management implies that it will provide insights for managers in better ways of managing IT so as to contribute to strategic success, or at least insights for researchers in developing research approaches towards better management methods. The subtitle, Perspectives on Organizational Growth and Competitive Advantage, suggests that the articles will focus on using IT for revenue enhancement and market share enlargement rather than for its traditional role of cost cutting. There is very little in this volume on those topics. One article discusses the role of IT in responsive systems, and there are numerous brief references to strategy in other articles, but the dominating theme throughout the book is the measurement of business value. Certainly this is an important issue for MIS practitioners and researchers, but it is only one component of strategic IT management. My concern is that those potential readers who are most interested in evaluation, justification and measurement issues will
Journal of Strategic Information Systems 1994 Volume 3 Number 2
149
Book reviews
ignore the book because of its title, and that those readers who are looking for discussion of strategic issues will be disappointed. It is not difficult to understand how such a mismatch can occur; the title had been chosen long in advance, and the best of the contributed articles were focused on the business value of IT. At that point, it seems to me, a new title would have been appropriate, but perhaps the publisher felt it was too late for that. The book is organized in three large sections. The first, ‘Frameworks for assessing the strategic and economic vaiue of IT’, leads off with the transcript of a debate conducted at the 1991 ICIS on the desirability of using a case study approach to the study of IT business value, versus the use of formal models. Other articles discuss the economic relationships between IS application portfolios and organizational strategy, using such techniques as marginal analysis, cost-benefit analysis, and financial options theory in IT investment decisions, and a model for MIS planning. The second section, ‘Perspectives on investments in new ITS’, contains a number of case studies from various industries, with the primary focus on assessing the benefits of the investment. There are cases on responsive systems, a public electronic network, using electronic data interchange (EDI) in the insurance industry, and the implementation of the ‘Big Bang’ system at the London Stock Exchange. In the Big Bang system, the authors note that the Exchange itself and the investing public derived substantial benefits but that the member firms, who actually paid for the system, are dissatisfied because of the perception that they would have been better off without the system. The authors also point out that these firms, like many other organizations, tend to measure the value of an IT investment by comparing their postimplementation results with their prior performance. If their competitors modernize and they do not, however, the firm may not survive, so comparisons to the status quo are inappropriate. Other topics covered include a discussion of relevant research methods 150
for measuring the economic impacts of EDI, a methodology for study of interorganizational systems, and knowledge worker productivity. Part III, the final section, is entitled ‘Empirical studies of information technology value’. This set of articles is somewhat broader in perspective and is perhaps more useful from a practitioner’s point-ofview than the previous sections. The articles contain such insights as: system performance measures should be consistent with the system’s objectives; the use of IT may lead to improved performance, but on the other hand it may be low performance that leads to the use of IT; in measuring IT effectiveness, distinguish between firms that implement well and those which do not; failure to make this distinction may have led to incorrect conclusions about IT value. There is also an excellent article on IT infrastructure and on why it is so difficult to justify in advance and to measure its impact after implementation. There is an extensive bibliography that is placed, more usefully for the reader, at the end of the volume, in contrast to most edited books for which the references are at the end of each chapter. Unfortunately, this welcome innovation is marred by extensive redundancy in the bibligraphy; one article is listed seven times and a number of others are listed multiple times. Overall, I recommend this book fOTthose who are interested in well-written and insightful discussions of the problems of IT evaluation and justification and the measurement of IT business value. It should be useful for most .7%S readers. For me, some of the articles were of more interest than others, particularly the Big Bang paper, the infrastructure article, and several more in Part III. Other readers will have other favourites, but almost all of the papers provide valuable ideas.
Journal of StrategicInformation
Bruce Rallier University of Bahimore USA
Systems 1994 Volume
3 Number 2