Assigned
PROBLEMS
5. Why can it be difficult to develop an accurate cost-benefit analysis? What factors may be difficult to quantify? How can this be handled? Is this something that should just be avoided altogether? What are the consequences of that approach?
Cost-benefit analysis can be difficult to develop because there are several factors that are difficult to include in the equation or cannot be quantified. The value of human life, time, customer satisfaction, and other intangible criteria are difficult to quantify. While this analysis technique can be simply to understand, creating estimations of the intangible criteria could affect the outcomes of the analysis. While these intangible should not be avoided because they could be crucial to the analysis, a careful estimation should be observed to account for the criteria. The estimations could lead to incorrect results for the analysis but that is a risk involved in the cost-benefit analysis.
11. Contrast the differing perspectives of different stakeholders involved in making information systems investment decisions.
There are multiple perspectives of the involvement of stakeholder in making information systems investment decisions. One approach includes stakeholders closely involved in the decision making process for the following reasons:
-It puts more ideas on the table
-It includes varied perspectives form all sectors and elements of the community affected
-It gains buy-in and support for the effort from all stakeholder
-It’s fair to everyone
-It strengthens the position if there’s opposition
-It creates bridging social capital for the community
-It increases the credibility of your organization
-It increases the chances for the success of your efforts
The opposing viewpoint disagrees and believes that stakeholders should not be involved in making investment decisions because it would include too many people in the decision process and it would be difficult to poll all investors in the organization included a large pool of investors. While both of these sides bring solid arguments, each organization must select the approach that will be must successful for the organization.
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