Canevet, Sophie (Sophie Canevet-Lehoux)

sophie.canevet-lehoux@reims-ms.fr

The Role of Information Systems Evaluation across an Extended System Life Cycle

(1996)

The role of evaluation across an extended system life cycle is explored, taking into account the importance of system maintenance and the need to replace systems. A role-oriented classification of evaluation studies is proposed and mapped onto the extended system life cycle. Three categories, predictive, feed-back and feed-forward, are identified. The context, content, process framework is then used to analyse the nature of evaluation as it evolves along the extended life cycle.

A pluralistic research method combining a case study and a field survey made up of a questionnaire and interviews is used to provide the necessary data. The results show that evaluation can bring a range of benefits across the extended life cycle, especially for maintenance management and system replacement, and suggest the existence of an evaluation cycle evolving along the extended life cycle. This cycle is further explored through an analysis of the interrelationships of context, content and process at the various stages.

Supervisor: Steve Smithson, PhD

Sophie Canevet-Lehoux is currently employed Lecturer in Information Systems at Reims Management School

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