IT @ Intel

Found a informative blog overall at Intel which talks about all things IT and in particular about how Intel looks at benefits realization. I have added the blog link on the right pane under "recommended blogs". The post I was talking about can be found here. To summarize, this is what the authors are saying :

- IT managers just don’t want to put in the effort to determine the ROI of an IT solution. If I had a fraction of the ROI I’ve quantified after being told it was too hard to measure, I’d be sitting on a beach in Barbados drinking beer for the rest of my life. Everything is measurable; it is more a question of the reliability and validity of what you decide to measure.

- What this typically comes down to is getting the right metrics identified and operationally defining them. We use metrics called business value dials to document the value of our IT solutions. Value dials (e.g., employee productivity, days of inventory, factory uptime, etc.) represent a standard set of metrics; each has a definition and standard calculation.


- Operational definitions are a core element of measuring business value. It is the step that translates the concept of business value into some type of measurement. For example, if eight people are asked to measure aggression and report their findings, the likelihood that we would see agreement among them is very low, as each person will define and measure aggression in their own way. The solution, use an operational definition. Give the same eight people the following instructions: “Today you are going to measure aggression. To do this you will go to Washington Elementary School, from 1-2 pm, go the sandbox in the northwest corner, and, using this form, count the number of times one child either strikes or pushes another child.”

- When the reports are in, there will be some discrepancies, a concept known as inter-rater reliability, but overall the data will be similar. Operational definitions are necessary to measure business value. Without operational definitions in place, everyone may be measuring, but it is highly unlikely they are measuring the same thing. Operational definitions make measurement independent of a person or group, repeatable by others, and standardize results.

A very interesting and valid perspective.