| Twenty years ago, Information Technology was focused on the automation of manual processes. The business benefits were to decrease cost by reducing resources. Financial measures such as Return-On-Investment were adequate, as project costs were typically isolated to the business department undergoing the automation and the Information Technology department developing the system. In today's world, Information Technology systems are being implemented for more complex and strategic objectives. In addition the cost and benefits are distributed throughout the organization and often not well understood or harvested.; The Nolan Norton Institute suggested using the Balanced Scorecard as a better approach to measure business value in these situations. The Balanced Scorecard translates an organization's objectives into four perspectives: Financial, Customer, Internal Business Process and Employee Learning and Growth.; In this thesis, the Balanced Scorecard will be used to evaluate the business value associated with Software Process Improvement. An industry based case study of an organization using the Software Engineering Institute's Capability Maturity Model (SEI CMM) for Software Process Improvement was used to examine the benefits of using the Balanced Scorecard for the Business Case. The Software Engineering Institute's Capability Maturity Model provides a framework to assess and progressively improve processes used in delivery of Information Technology systems and is a de facto standard for Software Process Improvement. |
