Impact estimation: IT priority decisions

Given resource constraints, prioritization is a fundamental process within systems
engineering to decide what to implement. However, there is little guidance about this
process and existing IT prioritization methods have several problems, including
failing to adequately cater for stakeholder value. In response to these issues, this
research proposes an extension to an existing prioritization method, Impact
Estimation (IE) to create Value Impact Estimation (VIE). VIE extends IE to cater for
multiple stakeholder viewpoints and to move towards better capture of explicit
stakeholder value. The use of metrics offers VIE the means of expressing stakeholder
value that relates directly to real world data and so is informative to stakeholders and
decision makers. Having been derived from prioritization factors found in the
literature, stakeholder value has been developed into a multi-dimensional, composite
concept, associated with other fundamental system concepts: objectives,
requirements, designs, increment plans, increment deliverables and system contexts.
VIE supports the prioritization process by showing where the stakeholder value
resides for the proposed system changes. The prioritization method was proven to
work by exposing it to three live projects, which served as case studies to this
research. The use of the extended prioritization method was seen as very beneficial.
Based on the three case studies, it is possible to say that the method produces two
major benefits: the calculation of the stakeholder value to cost ratios (a form of ROI)
and the system understanding gained through creating the VIE table.