A Case Study of the Discrepancy between Ex Ante and Ex Post Evaluation of IS Performance

정보화 성과의 사전-사후평가 차이에 관한 사례연구

The purpose of this longitudinal case study is to shed light on the reliability problems of IS performance evaluation by analyzing the discrepancy between ex ante evaluation in 2011 and ex post evaluation in 2012. Through an information system development project of a public enterprise, the gap between ex ante and ex post evaluation was ascertained and the causes as to why such gap occurs and the success factors that can solve the problems were derived. The ex ante evaluation of IS performance was performed based on both IS success model and BSC model and the ex post evaluation was carried out at the time after the target system has been built up by applying the evaluation measures and process that are similar to the ex ante evaluation. In the ex ante evaluation the business performance improved by the target system was estimated to 18.2%. On the other hand, it was seen as being low at 15.2% in the ex post evaluation and the differences were found to be statistically significant in 6 out of 10 measures. The reasons as to why such gap occurs were diagnosed as being of 2 types : (1) changes in the evaluation psychology according to the differences in the evaluation objectives; and (2) excessive expectation levels of the target system that is formed at the time of the ex ante evaluation. In other words, the users who have excessive expectations tend to overestimate in the ex ante evaluation and, in the ex post evaluation, tend to underestimate lower than the actual performance mainly due to disappointment on the results that do not meet the early expectations. As solutions to overcome the reliability problem of ex ante evaluation, 3 factors were derived : (1) the temperance of excessive expectation levels of the users; (2) a clear definition of the scope and functionality of the target system; and (3) actual commitments for the evaluations of IT performance.