A framework to support investment decisions using multi-criteria and under uncertainty in IT service portfolio management

This paper presents a framework to support decision making for investments in IT services. Investment options are analyzed and ranked according to utility indices estimated from possible positive and negative business impact of IT services. The approach takes multiple criteria and uncertainty into account by means of multi-attribute utility theory and interval arithmetic. The business impact of IT services is estimated by the analysis of criteria in one of three groups: Purely financial, Service Level Agreement (SLA) dependent and Subjective. Numerical illustrations encompassing tangible and intangible criteria demonstrate how the approach may be of use.

I. Introduction

Chief Information Officers (CIOs) frequently face the challenge to decide how to distribute the corporate IT budget over the IT service portfolio. Business executives push them to both make visible the benefits resulting from IT investments and to improve return to the business.