A Systematic Approach Toward Assessing the Value of an Information System

A multiattribute utility approach is adopted to assess the value of an information system. Various economic analyses of the value of information are reviewed and the conceptual problems regarding the definition of this value and some measurement difficulties are discussed. A list of possible utility attributes is proposed for a reporting system value assessment, and for each attribute a measure and a utility function is suggested. Some techniques which constitute a joint utility function are presented, accompanied by two examples. A real case of minicomputer selection is given in order to illustrate the structured approach.