Software Evaluation Criteria Example

Software Evaluation Criteria Example Software Evaluation Criteria â€" Essay Example > Software Evaluation CriteriaStudent’s Name: Instructor’s Name: Course Code Name: Date of Submission: IntroductionThe need to improve of the competitiveness of organizations has led to the integration of technologies in their practices. Among the most common of technological solutions that businesses opt for is the assimilation of computer systems in their processes (Land, Blankers, Chaudron Crnkovic, n.d. ). Computer systems are driven by integrated software each of which performs different functions hence leading to the ultimate optimal performance of the computer system. Because of the need to have a system which enables an organization to meet its objectives, there arises a need to ensure that the organization is able to get the right software solutions which best fit the requirements of an organization. The process of choosing the most appropriate software solutions for an organization is the Software Evaluation Criteria (Strub, 2003). There are various aspects of softwa re which an organization analyses in order to select the best software which meets its specific needs. The following essay gives a detailed insight into the software evaluation criteria. The essay will look at the high level evaluation criteria. Software Evaluation CriteriaThe main aim of software evaluation criteria is to identify the best software solutions which are best able to satisfy an organization’s needs (Land, Blankers, Chaudron Crnkovic, n.d. ). Most organizations have an Information Technology Department (IT) which oversees the technological issues of the organization. However other organizations, mostly small organizations, do not have an IT department but instead contract outsources to provide them with IT solutions. Whichever the case, it is important that an organization uses the best software evaluation criteria to ensure that it gets the best one in the market. There are various software evaluation criteria which are used in the market. They include; high leve l evaluation criteria, Analytic Hierarchy process, feature analysis, fuzzy based strategy and weighted average sum (Sonar Jadhav, 2009). The analytic hierarchy process is an evaluation criteria which subdivides the problems in an organization and also subdivides the various elements of a software and identifying how each of the problems will be solved by the specific software (Sonar Jadhav, 2009). The software which best solves the organization’s problems is then chosen. A feature analysis approach analyses software’s elements and its capabilities hence choosing the software that best fits an organization’s needs (Sonar Jadhav, 2009). A weighted average sum approach analyses a software with respect to its various qualities which go towards ensuring that the software is able to meet specific needs of an organization (Sonar Jadhav, 2009). After this, each software analyzed is allocated points according to its suitability of solving a specific problem. The software whose tot al points are highest is chosen. A fuzzy based evaluation criteria a descriptive approach which is used when the performance of software cannot be precisely identified. It makes use of the descriptive data to come up with a decision on the best suitable software (Sonar Jadhav, 2009). On the other hand, a high level evaluation criteria is an approach which seeks to ensure that a software solution is able to satisfy the specific needs of the various stakeholders involved. The approach involves a detailed evaluation of software with respect to specific characteristics of good software. The various types of high level evaluation criteria include an evaluation of software’s ability to; meet functional requirements, meet non-functional requirements, meet supplier requirements, meet implementation requirements and meet cost and time constraints. As indicated in the introduction, this essay will focus on the high level evaluation criteria.