Successful software applications: can they be evaluated?

There is extensive literature highlighting the difficulty in evaluating the success of software applications, and even in defining the meaning of the term “success”. Two complementary studies are presented that have focused on this from different perspectives (in the context of small-medium organisations (SMOs)) in terms of: (i) return on investment and (ii) user satisfaction. The former has adopted case study analysis, the latter longitudinal surveys as the instruments used: illustrative results are provided for both approaches. Results indicate that within the first case study company there is a strong link between the identified company strategy typology and the attitude to the type of investment undertaken. The preliminary results from the second case indicate that, contrary to received wisdom, user satisfaction with systems can exist despite a lack of liaison between developers and users in the requirements phase. Other factors that have influenced this satisfaction are outlined