Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
determine how to present the content. Stakeholder terms become the IA quantifica-
tion terms.
4.3.1.1
Audience Dependent
The stakeholder perspective is audience dependent, that is, who the stakehold-
ers are. There is little hope for universally understandable or universally relevant
IA quantification. Even financial terms only have meaning to those interested in
money, and money may not be the primary stakeholder concern. The point is to
develop an audience framework that provides insight into expressing IA quantifi-
cation in terms readily understood and accepted by the stakeholder. Chapter 12
presents an Organizational Context Framework (OCF) that includes governance,
management, operations, and users. Each of these audiences has different interests
in IA quantification. Users may have no interest at all in IA performance other than
it should not interfere with their job performance.
4.3.1.2
Spam Blocking Example
Assume a working environment of 52 weeks per year, 5 workdays per week, which
yields 260 potential workdays per year. Subtract 10 holidays, 10 vacation days,
and 5 sick days to get 235 actual workdays per year per employee. The department
employs 25 people. E-mail records show that on average each employee receives 10
spam messages per actual workday and takes on average 15 seconds to process each
spam message (or .25 minutes).
Lost productivity due to spam processing is ((235 25 10 .25)/60), or
approximately 245 hours per year or over 30 eight-hour workdays in annual lost
productivity. The productivity return for spam blocking is a function of how
many spam messages are actually blocked. If spam blocking achieves 100 percent
blocking, this is an annual 30-day productivity return for a department of 25
people. Even 80 percent spam blocking success yields a productivity return of
over 24 days annually.
In monetary terms, assume an average employee cost (including benefits) of
$60,000 per year. This is a daily expense of about $255 per employee. The 80 per-
cent success in spam blocking provides a $6,000+ annual return to this one depart-
ment of 25 people. Given all the same assumptions, this is a return of $60,000 for
an organization of 250 people and $600,000 for an organization of 2,500 people.
4.3.1.3
Strategic Interests
Consider the strategic implications of IA quantification. If the audience is a CxO
(i.e., CEO, CFO, COO, CIO, CSO, etc.), the stakeholder currency is likely to be
