Confirming, Identifying, and Categorizing IS Lifecycle Costs

With the ever-increasing global investments in Information Technology (IT) and Information Systems (IS), one question remains the same: what aspect of IT/IS projects is costing the organizations? Unlike any non-IT/IS investment, there is no straightforward answer due to the special nature of IT/IS projects having Human and organizational dimensions that make it difficult to identify their related cost factors during investment evaluation processes. Although many cost models exist in the literature, their aim to identify and categories IT/IS lifecycle costs remain often verbose. These different cost taxonomies aim to assist manager in their decision-making but lack practicality, as their associated cost factors cannot fit into current business accountancy frameworks used by many organizations. It is in addressing the relative invalidity of these models that the authors of this paper add to the literature surrounding the evaluation of information systems. In doing so, presenting a critical review of the limited literature in the area of cost taxonomies associated with information systems adoption. This paper highlights the need to identify the far-reaching costs associated with IT/IS and in doing so, presents eight cost models for IT/IS cost classification and an attempt to validate the various cost elements that exist throughout the eight models.