On Applying a Method for Developing Context Dependent CASE-tool Evaluation Frameworks

This dissertation concerns the application of a method for developing context dependent CASE-tool evaluation frameworks. Evaluation of CASE-tools prior to adoption is an important but complex issue; there are a number of reports in the literature of the unsuccessful adoption of CASE-tools. The reason for this is that the tools have often failed in meeting contextual expectations. The genuine interest and willingness among organisational stakeholder to participate in the study indicate that evaluation of CASE-tools is indeed a relevant problem, for which method support is scarce. To overcome these problems, a systematic approach to pre-evaluation has been suggested, in which contextual demands and expectations are elucidated before evaluating technology support. The proposed method has been successfully applied in a field study. This dissertation contains a report and reflections on its use in a specific organisational context. The application process rendered an evaluation framework, which accounts for demands and expectations covering the entire information systems development life cycle relevant to the given context. The method user found that method transfer was indeed feasible, both from method description to the analyst and further from the analyst to the organisational context. Also, since the span of the evaluation framework and the organisation to which the method was applied is considered to be large, this indicates that the method scales appropriately for large organisations.