Systems engineering-evaluating solutions

Many problems occur in the production of software intensive systems; technical failings and more management related aspects of difficulties in realistic planning, monitoring and spiralling costs. Solutions to these problems have been proposed either as a result of academic research or by vendors offering new methods, tools etc. These potential solutions have not, however, achieved the widespread adoption that their proponents advocate and it is the contention of the paper that one reason for the slow growth of new concepts and technologies is the failure to convince decision makers of their value. In many cases evaluations only identify the benefits and fail to show the full `cost of ownership´. In order to rectify this, a more systematic method is required to evaluate the impact, negative and positive, of the introduction of new techniques and technologies into organisations. The paper describes such a technique