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Information systems success measurement

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9902.ch299 3/12/02 10:42 AM Page 1
Success Measures of Information Systems
Yong Jin Kim Edward J. Garrity G. Lawrence Sanders
State University of New York At Buffalo Canisius College
I. THE DEFINITION OF INFORMATION SYSTEMS SUCCESS
II. THE DEFINITION OF INFORMATION SYSTEMS
III. AN INTEGRATED MODEL OF INFORMATION SYSTEMS
SUCCESS
IV. LEVELS OF ANALYSIS
GLOSSARY
decision support satisfaction The degree of satisfac-
tion a user has in the support provided by the IS
tool toward the goal of planning or controlling a
business process.
Information system (IS) A purposeful entity com-
posed of interdependent computer-based technol-
ogy and human components that are unified by de-
sign to accomplish one or more objectives. Thus, by
definition, an information system (IS) is a tool.
When evaluating the success of a tool, it is impera-
tive to assess the tool’s effectiveness in a particular
context and relative to its intended purpose. There-
fore, IS success factors should be used to pinpoint
how effective an IS tool is in a particular context to-
ward achieving organizational and individual goals.
Information systems success A measure of the de-
gree to which the person evaluating the system be-
lieves that the stakeholder is better off.
interface satisfaction A dimension that captures the
user’s overall impression of and satisfaction with
the interface in terms of presentation, format, ease
of use, and efficiency.
management effectiveness This is measured in terms of
improvement in management decision making, plan-
ning, and span of control attributed to company IS.
operational efficiency This focuses on the improve-
ment in internal customer performance and is mea-
sured in terms of flexibility, consistency, productiv-
ity, and cycle time.
Encyclopedia of Information Systems, Volume Four
Copyright 2002, Elsevier Science (USA). All rights reserved.
PROOF
State University of New York At Buffalo
V. LEVELS OF ANALYSIS AND CURRENT INFORMATION
SYSTEMS SUCCESS MEASUREMENT
VI. THE FUTURE OF COMPUTING AND THE EVOLUTION OF
INFORMATION SYSTEMS SUCCESS
quality of work life satisfaction The degree of satis-
faction users have in the impact of the IS on their
feelings, physical needs, personal goals, and psy-
chological states.
SISSM (User Satisfaction-based Information Systems
Success Model) An integrated IS success model
consisting of four subdimensions of user satisfac-
tion and organizational impact of IS use.
task support satisfaction The degree of satisfaction a
user has in the support provided by the IS tool
toward the goal of accomplishing job and task
requirements.
I. THE DEFINITION OF INFORMATION
SYSTEMS SUCCESS
Information systems (IS) success is a measure of the
degree to which the person evaluating the system be-
lieves that the stakeholder is better off. There exist var-
ious internal and external interest groups who de-
mand different aspects of IS performance. They
include stockholders, employees, customers, man-
agers, creditors, and government. The focus of mea-
suring IS success is on the investigation of the effect of
a system on individual performance, business process
performance, and organization performance. Figure 1
is an adaptation of the classic “Leavitt Diamond” that
illustrates the importance of task, technology, struc-
ture, people, and environment on IS success. This
framework is fundamental to understanding IS success
299-1
9902.ch299 3/12/02 10:42 AM Page 2
PROOF
299-2
Environment
-Economic
-Regulation People
-Industry -Individual differences
-Competition cognitive style, personality,
demographic/situational variables
-User involvement/Participation
-Management Support
Structure
-System of Communication
-System of Authority
-System of Workflow
Task
-Task Complexity
-Task Uncertainty
Figure 1 Framework for understanding IS success.
because incongruence among task, technology, struc-
ture, people, and environment can defeat the pur-
pose of a technology and lead to system failure.
The effect of IS, however, may vary with situational
differences. In organization research, the contingency
approach may be viewed from the perspective that no
one set of rules can be applied to all situations. It re-
jects the notion that universal principles can be ap-
plied to managing behavior in organizations. As shown
in Fig. 1, the success of a system is contingent on the
dynamic interplay between people, task, technology,
structure, and environment. In this model, people re-
fer to individuals working in an organization and their
individual differences such as personality, cognitive
style, attitudes, and motives. In the context of IS suc-
cess, user involvement and participation in the sys-
tems development process, user attitudes, and top
management support have received considerable re-
search attention and have been shown to influence
system success. The task factor refers to the nature of
the work itself. The task can be very complex or sim-
ple, standardized or unique, or ambiguous or clear.
Technology includes both problem solving methods
and techniques and the application of process knowl-
edge to producing products and services. Both task
and system complexity play an important role in the
user participation–IS success relationship. In situa-
tions where task complexity is low, the need for user
participation is reduced and likely to have less impact
on IS success. When the task complexity is high, the
need for effective user participation is crucial. By the
Success Measures of Information Systems
OK per original / ?
IS Success
Technology -Individual Level
-Complexity
-Process Level
-Reliability -Organization
-Effectiveness Level
same token, where system complexity is low, the need
for user participation is reduced. When the system
complexity is high, effective user participation will be
necessary to communicate requirements, to provide
feedback on usability, and to provide additional de-
sign recommendations. In the model, structure en-
compasses the system of communication, the system
of authority, and the system of workflow.
A. Overview on Information
Systems Success
Measuring IS success has been a major topic in IS re-
search. The research on IS success has evolved into
four main streams: the impact of individual differ-
ences on IS success, user involvement and IS, the
fit–IS success relationship, and user information satis-
faction. Individual differences have been reported to
play a crucial role in the implementation of any tech-
nological innovation. Particularly in the IS domain, a
relationship between individual differences and IS
success has been theoretically posited and empirically
tested in a large body of prior research. The individ-
ual differences include cognitive style, personality,
and demographic/situational variables. The cognitive
and attitudinal differences are argued to influence IS
success in the context of decision performance, MIS
usage, and user satisfaction. In social learning theory,
individual differences are also expected to influence
learning through observation and then belief forma-
 9902.ch299 3/12/02 10:42 AM Page 3
Success Measures of Information Systems
tion. That is, the belief formation is essentially a learn-
ing process, and therefore, understanding the learn-
ing process is critical to understanding the formation
of attitudes.
User involvement and user participation, both well-
studied IS independent variables, have been used al-
most interchangeably for a long time within IS research.
User involvement is defined as a subjective psychologi-
cal state reflecting the importance and personal rele-
vance of a system to the user. User participation is de-
fined as a set of behaviors or activities performed by
users in the system development process. User partici-
pation has been reported to significantly influence both
user involvement and user attitude. The relationship
between user participation and user satisfaction has also
been reported to be affected by task complexity and sys-
tem complexity among various contingency factors, in-
cluding task complexity, system complexity, user influ-
ence, and user–developer communication.
The task-technology fit model, referred to as the
correspondence between task needs and system func-
tionality, implies that the match between technology
and task explains user performance. This model is un-
derpinned by the assumption that information systems
give value by being instrumental in some tasks or col-
lection of tasks and that users will reflect this in their
evaluations of these systems. It is reported that user
evaluations of task-technology fit are a function of
both systems characteristics and task characteristics,
and to predict performance, both task-technology fit
and utilization must be included. It has also been
found that mismatches between data representations
and tasks would impair decision-making performance
by requiring additional efforts for data interpretation.
User satisfaction, “a perceptual or subjective mea-
sure of IS success” (Ives, Olson, and Baroudi, 1983), is
considered one of the most important measures of IS
success. User information satisfaction has been argued
to consist of three constructs: the information prod-
pls define EDP uct, EDP staff and services, and user knowledge and
involvement. In the context of end-user computing
satisfaction, user satisfaction has been contended to
be composed of five subdimensions (which primarily
focus on information characteristics), including con-
tent, format, accuracy, ease of use, and timeliness.
A number of researchers have reviewed and syn-
thesized previous research in terms of IS success mod-
els. DeLone and McLean suggested a model of IS suc-
cess, which consists of a six-category multilevel
construct including information quality, system qual-
ity, use, user satisfaction, individual impact, and orga-
nizational impact. Seddon respecified and extended
the DeLone and McLean model into a partial behav-
PROOF
299-3
ioral model of IS use, an IS success model, and a
process model of IS success, arguing that IS use in the
DeLone and McLean model has three meanings: a
variable that proxies for the benefits from use, a de-
pendent variable of future IS use, and an event in a
process model.
Garrity and Sanders adapted the DeLone and
McLean model and proposed an alternative model in
the context of organizational systems and sociotech-
nical systems. They identified four subdimensions of
user satisfaction, including interface satisfaction, task
support satisfaction, decision support satisfaction, and
quality of work life satisfaction. It is important to note
that the Garrity and Sanders model of IS success in-
cludes the impact of using information technology on
the quality of work life of users, which few studies
have paid attention to. Improving the users’ quality of
work life has been a goal of researchers who have
studied and advocated participative design and user-
centered approaches. The Garrity and Sanders model
of IS success has been empirically tested and validated
by Sherman et al. with data from seven different or-
ganizations and by Garrity et al. in an electronic com-
merce setting.
Davis and Davis et al. proposed the technology ac-
ceptance model (TAM) as a mechanism for explaining
the individual’s behavior to use information technol-
ogy. TAM explains the relationship among beliefs, atti-
tudes, behavioral intentions, and system usage. Per-
ceived usefulness and ease of use represent the beliefs
that affect attitude toward use and eventually lead to sys-
tem usage. TAM assumes that beliefs and attitude fully
mediate the effects that all other external variables may
have on system usage. TAM is parsimonious and has
high predictive power; however, its generality is some-
times criticized for not providing sufficient information
necessary to predict user acceptance of new systems.
B. Assumptions for Understanding
Information Systems Success
Assessing the success of IS should be done within the
context of organizational work. Organizational work
refers to human activities performed with the inten-
tion of producing something of acknowledged social
value in various formal organizations. The nature of
IS in the organizational setting is closely tied to pro-
viding task-related support capabilities to achieve or-
ganizational goals. That is, the extent to which IS help
organizations determine objectives and support work
outcomes based on system use depends upon the level
of task-related support capabilities expressed by task
9902.ch299 3/12/02 10:42 AM Page 4
PROOF
299-4
support satisfaction, decision support satisfaction, and
interface satisfaction.
System quality and information quality are an-
tecedents to user satisfaction in the DeLone and
McLean model. However, if we start with the premise
that an IS is a tool, then clearly its usefulness must be
judged with respect to how helpful it is in aiding users
in the accomplishment of their goals. Therefore, ob-
jective features of the IS and the quality of the infor-
mation become meaningless outside of the organiza-
tional context of its use. That is, a user must use an
IS tool to accomplish tasks in an organizational set-
ting. The value of a system and the information pro-
duced by it depends upon the match among the user,
the task, the system, and the organizational structure.
This view is consistent with Leavitt’s model of imple-
mentation. From this point of view, an assessment of
the quality of the IS by the user in his or her context
of work is important and relevant.
As discussed above, user satisfaction is the subjec-
tive measure of IS success for the individual level of
analysis. For process and organizational levels of analy-
sis, objective measures should be developed for use.
Existing measures include measures for operational
efficiency, management effectiveness, financial per-
formance, enhancement of products and services, and
market growth. Managers must be able to measure IS
success in order to obtain feedback and implement
control mechanisms to ensure effective development
and management of IS in organizations. This concept
is embedded in the old management adage, “One
cannot manage what one cannot measure.”
The measurement of IS success is a fundamental ac-
tivity of organization researchers. The application of
the scientific method in IS research involves the devel-
System
Use
Quality
Information User
Quality Satisfaction
Figure 2 Delone and McLean’s model of IS success.
Success Measures of Information Systems
opment of hypotheses based on theories, the develop-
ment of experiments and field studies, the measure-
ment of variables, and empirical testing and analyses to
validate the theories. Without well-understood and
accurately defined measures, researchers cannot be
confident in their scientific results.
II. THE DEFINITION OF
INFORMATION SYSTEMS
One of the reasons for the numerous IS success mea-
sures is that there are many ways to view an IS in an
organization. The DeLone and McLean model of IS
success provides a visual representation of the major
factors involved in the IS success concept (Fig. 2).
Most of the existing success measures have focused on
one aspect of this model, either system quality, infor-
mation quality, system use, or user satisfaction. In gen-
eral, the model depicts the notion that the quality of
the IS (as either the IS artifact itself or the informa-
tion produced by it) leads to system use. Higher qual-
ity systems are presumably used more frequently or
more effectively, which should then produce user sat-
isfaction with the system. The use of an effective sys-
tem will then have an impact on the individual and
ultimately on the organization itself.
While the DeLone and McLean model is an effective
model for explaining the existing dependent measures
being used by IS researchers, it may not be the best
model to understand IS and their intended purposes
within an organization. In order to develop a more pre-
cise definition of IS success, it is first necessary to de-
velop a more precise definition of what an IS is and
then to determine the IS’s purpose in an organization.
Individual Organizational
Impact Impact
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PROOF
Success Measures of Information Systems 299-5

In an abstract sense, an organization can be viewed
as a complex set of interacting subsystems designed to
provide a product or service to a customer in such a
way as to achieve the organization’s overall goal or
mission. The organization’s mission will typically in-
volve product and service design, delivery, adminis-
tration, and management. This viewpoint of an orga-
nization, in terms of the organizational system,
essentially views an organization from the perspective
of general systems theory (Fig. 3). Under general sys-
tems theory, a system is defined as a purposeful entity
composed of interdependent components that are
unified by design to accomplish one or more objec-
tives. The organizational system is further broken
down into subsystems or functional areas. The func-
tional areas (e.g., finance, production, etc.) act as in-
terdependent subsystems whose goal attainment helps
to achieve the goals of the organizational system. Each
subsystem can be examined in a similar fashion using
functional decomposition or specialization. Work is
designed as groups of tasks and subtasks and is ac-
complished via a collaborative arrangement of hu-
man and machine (i.e., computer system and worker,
or the man–machine subsystem viewpoint). In this

Accoun ting Human

Resources
Marketing

Finance
Operations

Materials Quality
Management Control

Production Product Design Scheduling

Planning

Human–Machine system

Figure 3 Organizational system viewpoint.

9902.ch299 3/12/02 10:42 AM Page 6
PROOF
299-6
conceptualization of an organization, the subsystems
are organizational units designed for task accom-
plishment and information processing. As such, IS
are complementary input–process–output devices, in-
terchangeable with human components. An effec-
tively designed organizational system will assemble
units in such a manner that work is accomplished in
the most desirable way, leading to attainment of or-
ganizational goals.
A. Information Systems Goals
IS exist as components within the organizational sys-
tem. In order to address the possible purposes of an
IS in this context, we take an abstract view of an or-
ganizational system by borrowing the open system
perspective of Bowditch and Buono (1982), where
systems are composed of four interdependent subsys-
tem components:
“As such, organizations are referred to as multivariate
social systems, composed of at least four basic com-
ponents: (1) an administrative or structural configura-
tion, (2) a set of tasks to be performed with a related
technology or set of tools to accomplish the tasks, (3) a
human or social component that emerges from organi-
zational activities, and finally (4) an informational or
decision-making subsystem” (p. 5, italics retained from
the original).
An IS can be used to perform a business-related
task (e.g., process an order, withdraw items from in-
ventory, register a student for classes, or print a re-
ceipt) or to record the event or transaction for the
purposes of organizational memory (subsystem com-
ponent 2 from Bowditch and Buono). Essentially, the
IS helps in performing the current business opera-
tions of the firm.
An IS can also be used to support the decision-
making subsystem function of the organization. Es-
sentially, all organizations must plan for future ac-
tions. After recording business activities or
transactions, IS can perform decision support actions:
organizing information, calculations, and re-repre-
sentation, expansion, or summarizing of information
(subsystem component 4).
Although IS have generally been designed to fit
within the existing organizational or administrative
structure, increasingly firms have achieved the most
dramatic improvements in performance when they
have redesigned their entire work systems to take ad-
vantage of changes in technology. Specifically, new
work practices, such as decentralized decision mak-
ing, self-directed work teams, and incentive systems
Success Measures of Information Systems
that encourage and reward high team performance,
when combined with technology investment have
been shown to provide the greatest payoff for organi-
zations. Indeed, business process redesign can be
thought of as the synergy of redesigned work struc-
tures with new technologies. In addition, computers
and information technology are being used as ad-
vanced communication devices that can have a dra-
matic effect on organizational structure and commu-
nication patterns (thus impacting subsystem
component 1).
Finally, interwoven within the organizational sys-
tem is the human and social component. What makes
this interdependence somewhat complex is the mul-
tifaceted and dynamic nature of humans who have
their own set of goals and desires. When implement-
ing IS to serve the needs and goals of the organiza-
tion, it is imperative to take explicit account of the
human and social component. The proper imple-
mentation of technology and IS requires compatibil-
ity with the sociotechnical system perspective because
workers’ job satisfaction and quality of work life can
be negatively impacted. Alternatively, properly de-
signed IS can increase workers’ quality of work life
through increased span of control and empowerment.
III. AN INTEGRATED MODEL OF
INFORMATION SYSTEMS SUCCESS
The Garrity and Sanders’ model of IS success adapts
the Delone and McLean model by incorporating four
dimensions of IS success: task support satisfaction, de-
cision support satisfaction, interface satisfaction, and
quality of work life satisfaction. The model presented
in Fig. 4 is an extension of the work of Leavitt and var-
ious scholars of organization science and draws on
general systems theory to provide a parsimonious rep-
resentation of the major factors involved in IS success.
A. Task Support Satisfaction
The task support satisfaction dimension measures how
well the system helps or hinders the individual in ac-
complishing his or her job responsibilities and fulfill-
ing task requirements. As IS are being designed and
implemented within, between, and across organiza-
tional boundaries, the implementation and use of IS
can have a profound impact on a worker’s ability to ac-
complish tasks necessary to achieve the goals of the
larger organizational system. However, newly devel-
oped systems which are sound and robust in technical
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PROOF
Success Measures of Information Systems 299-7

ness process subsystem. The system was designed to

eliminate conversations between workers and dis-
patchers because such conversations were thought to
be “time spent off task.” However, instead of increas-
ing the efficiency of workers, the system decreased
their ability to effectively troubleshoot problems. Con-
versations were, in fact, key ingredients to diagnosing
equipment failures.
In measuring task support satisfaction, the con-
cepts of productivity and effectiveness, and the dif-
ference between expectation and perceived quality
should be incorporated because task support satisfac-
tion is assumed to come from the individuals’ per-
ception of fulfilling task requirements. Table I shows
examples of measurement items for the task support
satisfaction dimension of user satisfaction.

B. Decision Support Satisfaction

Figure 4 Garrity and Sanders’ model of IS success.
terms frequently fail to carry out their intended roles
if designers do not pay close attention to achieving a
close fit with the task requirements of users and gain-
ing a thorough understanding of how users actually ac-
complish work. In this context, the task support satis-
faction dimension is concerned with the fit among the
system, the user, and the task. This is particularly true
in environments where business processes are very
complex and require seamless support from IS, such as
business-to-business support systems. In this context,
the appropriate deployment of information technolo-
gies for each task is critical for the success of the IS.
A good example of an IS failure due to an inap-
propriate fit in the task support dimension is the trou-
ble ticketing system (TTS) at NYNEX. TTS is a system
which dispatches work to telephone service workers
in order to schedule them and to keep an on-line
record of their work. TTS was designed to make work-
ers more productive within the context of the busi-
Decision support satisfaction is the belief an individual
has that the computer system is able to provide infor-
mation and decision support toward the goal of con-
trolling a business process. Decision support satisfac-
tion can also be defined in terms of the capability of
an IS when system intervention assists in decision mak-
ing and better performance of the user’s jobs. Mea-
suring decision support satisfaction is very important
because decision making is a fundamental process in
organizations. The use of decision support from IS
helps to simplify the decision process and make it lin-
ear, particularly when the decision-making activities
are ill structured and situation specific and involve
choosing from a number of alternatives.
Decision support satisfaction is viewed as a subcom-
ponent of task satisfaction. Decision support satisfac-
tion differs from task support satisfaction in terms of
focus and detail. Jobs differ in terms of the degree of
decision making involved and the composition of non-
decision-making managerial or clerical tasks. For ex-
ample, a job designated as managerial may still involve
performing “clerical” tasks such as completing forms,
generating reports, and disseminating information. On

Table I Measurement Items for Task Support Satisfaction

1. This information system is more useful than I had expected.

2. This information system assists me in performing my tasks better.
3. This information system is extremely useful.
4. Using this information system enables me to accomplish tasks more quickly.
5. This information system makes it easier to do my tasks.
9902.ch299 3/12/02 10:42 AM Page 8
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299-8
the other hand, an individual in a clerical or analyst
position may perform managerial tasks such as com-
municating, delegating, coordinating and organizing
individuals, and controlling a process or decision mak-
ing at a certain organizational level. The task support
satisfaction dimension captures the IS support for the
overall set of tasks associated with job activities, while
decision support satisfaction is more focused on IS sup-
port for decision making such as structuring, analyz-
ing, and deciding or implementing a decision.
Measurement items for decision support satisfac-
tion attempt to determine whether the system sup-
ports the individual in recognizing problems, struc-
turing problems, and/or making decisions related to
the goal of controlling a business process. Examples
of measurement items for decision support satisfac-
tion are shown in Table II.
C. Interface Satisfaction
Interface satisfaction is a dimension that captures the
user’s overall impression of the interface in terms of
presentation, format, ease of use, and efficiency. Ac-
cording to the theory of symbolic representation in
problem solving, there are three types of symbolic
representation: linguistic representation, visual im-
agery representation, and exploratory reasoning. In
most problem solving situations where information
search and the evaluation of alternatives are critical
stages, various combinations of these three represen-
tations help direct attention and focus on appropriate
alternatives. Differences in information presentation
may also result in changes in decision-making strate-
gies. This, in turn, influences the effectiveness of de-
cision making and also task performance.
Hence, limited menus, poorly designed navigation,
and the difficulty in comparing alternatives in a effec-
tive manner all make task support and decision sup-
port activities more difficult in business organizations.
In particular, high interface quality in the systems that
assist in complex processes is critical in reducing cog-
nitive overhead (i.e., additional efforts and concentra-
tion necessary to maintain several tasks or trails at one
Table II Measurement Items for Decision Support Satisfaction
1. This information system improves the quality of my decision making.
2. Use of the information system enables me to make better decisions.
3. This information system assists me in making decisions more effectively.
4. Use of the information system enables me to set my priorities in decision making.
Success Measures of Information Systems
time) and disorientation (i.e., the tendency to lose
one’s sense of location and direction in a set of non-
linear documents). As such, the quality of the interface
is related to both task support satisfaction and decision
support satisfaction. An improperly designed interface
can cause users difficulty with task completion or can
impair their ability to make decisions.
The focus of measuring the interface satisfaction
dimension is on presentation, format, ease of use, and
efficiency. Interface satisfaction is assumed to incorpo-
rate most parts of information quality because the
vehicle for presenting the information (e.g., a textbox,
table, graph, listbox, or form) cannot be separated from
the information itself. Table III shows several examples
of measurement items for interface satisfaction.
D. Quality of Work Life Satisfaction
Quality of work life satisfaction or perceived quality of
work life is a set of affective beliefs directed toward the
organizational work domain of life. Quality of work life
addresses the fit between an IS and the sociotechnical
work world of the respective users and involves IS’s im-
pacts on people’s feelings, physical needs, and psy-
chological states. In this view, users are not only com-
ponents of the organizational system, but they are also
recognized as having their own goals and aspirations
separate from the directives of the organization.
Introducing a new IS changes job characteristics
such as task autonomy, skill variety, task identity, task
significance, and task feedback through deskilling
and/or upgrading jobs. Task autonomy is defined as
the extent to which the job provides individual dis-
cretion relating to the work process. Skill variety
means the opportunity to use numerous and varied
skills in one’s personal repertoire to perform the work.
Task identity is defined as the degree to which the job
requires the completion of a whole, recognizable
piece of work. Task significance is defined as the de-
gree to which a job affects the lives of other people.
Finally, task feedback means the well-defined oppor-
tunity to know how effectively one is performing di-
rectly from the job itself.
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Success Measures of Information Systems 299-9

Table III Measurement Items for Interface Satisfaction

1. The information provided by this information system is clear and understandable.

2. Learning to use this information system was easy for me.
3. This information system is user friendly.
4. This information system is easy to use.
5. I found it easy to get this information system to do what I want it to do.
6. My interaction with this information system was clear and understandable.
7. It would be easy for me to become skillful at using this information system.

Changes in these job characteristics have been
shown to have a curvilinear influence on the key in-
dicators of the quality of work life satisfaction, in-
cluding job satisfaction, job-related anxiety, and emo-
tional exhaustion. Deskilling involves a decrease in
the skill content of a particular job over time and an
increase in the number of people in less skilled jobs.
Upgrading involves increases in time to concentrate
on conceptual and decision-making tasks by reducing
much of the manual work in information processing.
Likewise, introducing a new IS may alter job charac-
teristics and, in turn, influence work outcomes.
Measurement items for quality of work life satisfac-
tion attempt to determine whether the introduction of
a new IS changes the perceived quality of work life in
terms of changes in five job characteristics: task auton-
omy, skill variety, task identity, task significance, and task
feedback. The examples of measurement items for the
quality of work life satisfaction are shown in Table IV.
E. Dimensions of Information Systems
Success and the Integrated Model
The four dimensions of IS success all contribute to or
impact the successful attainment of goals at the orga-
nizational level. The nature of IS in the organizational
setting is closely tied to providing task-related support
capabilities to achieve organizational goals. That is,
the extent to which IS help organizations determine
objectives and support work outcomes based on sys-
tem use depends upon the level of task-related sup-
port capabilities expressed directly by task support sat-
isfaction and indirectly by decision support satisfaction
and interface satisfaction. However, it is believed that
task-related support capabilities alone do not account
for the effect of system use on perceived organiza-
tional performance. Emotional factors such as quality
of work life are inextricably intertwined with rational
organizational processes such as task support and also
influence organizational performance. Figure 5 pro-
vides a causal model of how the dimensions of IS suc-
cess are believed to be related to one another and how
they ultimately affect organizational performance.
The so-called user satisfaction-based information
systems success model (SISSM) presented in Fig. 5 is
related to the TAM. Specifically, task support satisfac-
tion corresponds with TAM’s perceived usefulness and
interface satisfaction corresponds with TAM’s per-
ceived ease of use. However, the model extends TAM
by incorporating explicit consideration of decision
support satisfaction as a separate and important di-
mension of IS success. Furthermore, the model in-
corporates the assessment of a worker’s quality of work

Table IV Measurement Items for Quality of Work Life Satisfaction

1. The information system has improved my overall quality of work life.

2. The information system helps alleviate time pressure.
3. The information system gives me the right level of autonomy.
4. The use of the information system makes my job more challenging.
5. The information system makes my job more important.
6. The information system makes my skills more important.
7. The use of the information system improves my relationship with other employees.
8. Learning the information system allows more promotion opportunities.
9902.ch299 3/12/02 10:42 AM Page 10

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299-10 Success Measures of Information Systems

Task Support
Satisfaction
(Usefulness)

Interface Decision Perceived

Satisfaction Support Organizational
(Ease of use) Satisfaction Impact

Quality of
Work Life
Satisfaction

Figure 5 User satisfaction-based information systems success model (SISSM).

life satisfaction. Empirical results lend support to the
model. Figure 6 shows the results of an empirical test
of a structural model using partial least squares. The
model is able to account for 71% of the variance in
perceived organizational impact.
IV. LEVELS OF ANALYSIS
According to the Delone and McLean model of IS
success, an IS contributes to or impacts the individ-
ual, which then leads to organizational impact. Two
major questions arise from this sequence of impacts
or causal chain:
1. How, precisely do individual impacts lead to
organizational impact?
2. Why not measure organizational impact directly
instead of individual impact or user satisfaction?
We next examine the levels of analysis in order to ad-
dress these two issues. Three levels of analysis can be
used to examine this causal chain: the individual level
of analysis discussed earlier, the process level, and the
organization level (see Table V).
A. Information System Success
at the Individual Level
The vast majority of empirical studies on IS develop-
ment have utilized IS success measures at the individ-
ual level of analysis. The previous sections of this ar-
ticle discussed the basic theoretical foundation of this
research. Although too numerous to mention here,
most of the dependent measures have been classified
as user satisfaction, user information satisfaction, or
end-user computing satisfaction or have utilized a sim-
ple self-reported “use” measure. Using DeLone and
McLean’s model as a guide (see Fig. 2), user satisfac-
tion and use should lead to individual impact, which
then leads to organizational impact.
B. Information System Success
at the Process Level
The purpose of a business processes is to produce a
product or service and to create value for various inter-
nal or external customers. Introducing a new IS may
change the business process and how value is created.

TSS
(R2 =0.81)
0.629**
0.323** 0.231**

Interface 0.159** DSS POI

Satisfaction (R2 =0.63) 0.453** (R2 =0.71)

0.649** 0.683**
0.243**
QWLS
(R2 =0.43)

* 01 ** 001 (b d il d )
Figure 6 SISSM structural model results.*p  .01, **p  .001 (based on t(172), two-tailed test).
9902.ch299 3/12/02 10:42 AM Page 11
Success Measures of Information Systems
Table V Information Systems Success Measurement Across Levels of Analysis
Level Dimension(s)
Individual level User satisfaction
Business process level Operational efficiency
Management effectiveness
Oganization level Financial performance
Enhancement of products
and services
Market share growth
The impacts of a new IS on changes in value creation
logic should be focused on four basic dimensions, in-
cluding operational efficiency, management effective-
ness, the establishment of market linkages, and the en-
hancement of products and services. The operational
efficiency and management effectiveness can be viewed
in the context of internal customers, while the estab-
lishment of market linkages and the enhancement of
products and services can be evaluated in terms of ex-
ternal customers. By focusing on internal customer value,
the impacts of IS on business processes can be measured
using internal performance variables such as flexibility,
consistency, productivity, and cycle time. The impacts of
IS on business processes in the context of external cus-
tomer value can be measured using external perfor-
mance variables in the form of perceptions of cost, qual-
ity, responsiveness, and reliability. However, external
customer value is better assessed at the organizational
level of analysis since financial and external measures al-
ready exist and because these processes are designed to
benefit customers and impact the organization.
1. Information Systems Contribution
to Operational Efficiency
Operational efficiency focuses on the improvement in
internal customer performance and is measured in
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299-11
Subdimensions
Task support satisfaction
Decision support satisfaction
Interface satisfaction
Quality of work life satisfaction
Flexibility and scalability
Consistency
Productivity
Cycle time
Improvement in decision making
Improvement in span of control
Improvement in planning
Return on investment
Return on sales
Cash flow
Profitability
Cost reduction
Quality
Responsiveness
Reliability
Market share gains
Sales growth
Revenue growth
terms of flexibility, consistency, productivity, and cycle
time. The flexibility of a business process is defined as
the adjustability to meet immediate and/or long-term
customer needs as business conditions change. Infor-
mation technologies such as computer-integrated man-
ufacturing and group technology allow organizations to
adopt a more flexible way of manufacturing and to in-
crease customer responsiveness. IS also help companies
cope with market conditions in a flexible manner by
providing faster and more exact information regarding
customer needs, prices, and costs. Scalability is defined
as the ability to significantly increase or decrease ca-
pacity without major disruption or excessive costs. The
increase in scalability is one of the important benefits
of the technical advances in information technologies
because nonscalable processes require huge capital ex-
penditure for production system capacity changes.
Consistency in a business process means the de-
gree to which the same desired results are obtained
by applying the same techniques in the same way. IS
may force organizations to do things consistently by
incorporating all the work procedures in the systems.
IS may also be designed to provide information that
helps people perform and control business processes
in a consistent manner.
Productivity in the context of business process is re-
ferred to as the relationship between the amounts of
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299-12
output produced by a business process and the amount
of money, time, and effort it consumes. Improvement
of business process productivity depends on the capa-
bility to produce more output from the same level of
inputs or produce the same output from lower levels
of inputs. IS help employees to work smarter and more
efficiently by (1) providing the right information to al-
low workers to skip steps in task processing, (2) au-
tomating tasks and calculations, (3) providing support
for decision making, and (4) providing support for
production processing and scheduling. It is important
to note that IS investments are not just the purchase
price, but also all the other costs such as support, train-
ing, maintenance, administration, and time spent by
end users doing programming.
Cycle time is defined as the length of time between
the start of the process and its completion. It is de-
termined by a combination of three factors: process-
ing time, waiting time, and dependencies between
steps. It was reported that in complicated manufac-
turing factories producing a wide range of products,
less than 10% of the total cycle time had been actu-
ally spent adding value to the material in process. IS
can help in situations where long waiting times and
bottlenecks exist by helping people decide on the
right order of work to improve workflow. This is ac-
complished through various drawing tools, statistical
analysis tools, and detail information.
2. Information Systems Contribution
to Management Effectiveness
Management effectiveness can be measured in terms
of improvement in management decision making,
planning, and span of control attributed to company
IS. An increased span of control can be achieved
through improvements in monitoring and perfor-
mance measurement, which in turn improves the time
management of managers and increases their pro-
ductivity. Managers can also focus more on the major
issues and speed up decision making by leaving rou-
tine decisions to other individuals.
Decision-making behavior can be characterized in
terms of the number of criteria used, the type of in-
formation search, sources of information used, the
use of heuristics, and the number of alternatives gen-
erated. IS help decision makers specify required in-
formation and alternatives needed to be considered.
This assistance from an IS increases management
decision-making performance by simplifying the
decision process, making it linear, and ultimately al-
lowing managers to control the business process.
Success Measures of Information Systems
C. Information Systems Success
Measurement at the Organization Level
The organizational impact of IS includes various is-
sues from cost effectiveness to economic performance,
including profit performance to product and man-
agement quality. Most variables that measure organi-
zational impacts directly have used economic metrics.
1. Information Systems Contribution
to Financial Performance
The major measurements for financial performance
include return on investment, return on sales, cash
flow, and profitability. Information systems contribute
to the maximization of financial performance by re-
ducing internal costs or increasing productivity and
by providing information needed for better decisions
such as pricing decisions. IS can support pricing de-
cisions in many different ways. The most direct is sim-
ply to provide immediate results about the relation-
ship between price and sales. Another way to maximize
profits is market segmentation, dividing the market
into different customer groups willing to pay different
amounts for different types or levels of service.
2. Information System Contribution to the
Enhancement of Products and Services
The impact of new IS on the enhancement of prod-
ucts and services results in a higher level of perceived
value by customers. This perceived value of customers
can be measured in terms of cost/price, quality, re-
sponsiveness, and reliability. Cost is argued to be a
primary determinant of customer satisfaction. IS re-
duce costs to a customer by reducing the cost of ac-
quiring and using the product.
Quality is defined as the degree of excellence or su-
periority in kind and as the totality of features and char-
acteristics of a product and service that bears on its abil-
ity to satisfy given customer needs. It is not just about
meeting specifications or agreed upon goals, but also
about satisfying customers’ expectations better than the
competitors. IS can be applied in many different ways
to improve product or service quality. Major approaches
to increasing product or service quality through IS are
based on increasing the accessibility to information re-
garding product/service features and providing addi-
tional information that can increase the product’s use-
fulness. This is because customers purchase a service
when they buy a product. Furthermore, in many cases,
to buy a product means only to access a service.
9902.ch299 3/12/02 10:42 AM Page 13
Success Measures of Information Systems
Responsiveness is referred to as the degree to which
a service or product provider takes timely action based
on what a customer wants. IS help companies give
customers timely and useful responses, as well as pro-
vide a way to achieve market presence through Web-
based technology.
Finally, the reliability of a product or service is de-
fined as the likelihood it will provide the promised func-
tionality without experiencing significant operational
failures. Systems can also make output more reliable by
reducing dependence on the personal knowledge of
specific individuals and increasing the amount of ex-
plicit organizational knowledge. Likewise, systems that
bring expert knowledge to help people make decisions
may increase reliability by making the best knowledge
available for whoever is making a decision.
3. Information Systems Contribution
to Market Share Growth
IS impacts on market share growth can be measured
in terms of market share gains, sales growth, and rev-
enue growth. A new IS may help increase product
awareness, support the sales force, improve product
availability, and facilitate payment. IS that establish
and use marketing databases can promote product
awareness by exploiting “addressability”—the ability
to direct specific messages to specific individuals or
groups. By providing information such as purchase
patterns, affiliations, and age, these databases make it
possible to focus marketing resources on the individ-
uals with a higher probability of making a purchase.
IS can support various steps in the sales process, in-
cluding designing the sales program, identifying
prospects, negotiating prices, order taking, and
follow-up contacts to maintain the relationship. IS
such as inventory systems also provide an effective way
for businesses to maximize merchandise availability
without excessive inventory levels by tracking the
quantity on hand of every item and allowing quick re-
plenishment. Facilitating payment is another way to
increase sales volume by helping customers purchase
products. IS that allow credit card, debit card, and
smart card transactions all facilitate payment for con-
sumers by making cash or checks unnecessary, thereby
increasing convenience and sales volume.
V. LEVELS OF ANALYSIS AND
CURRENT INFORMATION SYSTEMS
SUCCESS MEASUREMENT
Viewing IS success across the levels of analysis gives us
a broad perspective on how IS contribute to organi-
PROOF
299-13
zational success. Since IS can be defined as compo-
nents within the organizational system and since their
ultimate purpose is to enhance organizational goals,
it is tempting to measure IS success using broad or-
ganizational measures. However, isolating the specific
contribution of IS to the attainment of organizational
goals is difficult. Since organizational level measures
are so broad, it is very difficult to control for and mea-
sure other impacts on profitability, market share, and
enhanced product or service levels.
Because of these long-standing difficulties in
macrolevel measurement, researchers and practition-
ers alike have relied on user satisfaction measures.
However, increased precision and insight can be ob-
tained by unlocking the hidden dimensions of IS suc-
cess, which can then lead to insights on relationships
between IS features and organizational impacts.
Specifically, task support satisfaction measures the
degree of satisfaction a user has in the support pro-
vided by the IS tool toward the goal of accomplishing
job and task requirements. IS that support users in
their specific tasks will improve operational efficien-
cies at the business process level (see Figs. 3–5). In-
creases in operational efficiency will lead to market
share growth via lower prices and potentially will con-
tribute to enhanced products and services and the
ability to establish and maintain market linkages (e.g.,
arrangements with suppliers and external firms are
enhanced when companies have greater market
power, more efficient operations, etc.).
Decision support satisfaction will increase manage-
ment effectiveness at the business process level. As
discussed earlier, improved decision support can in-
crease the span of control of managers by improving
monitoring, decision quality, decision speed, and per-
formance measurement and thereby increase man-
agers’ productivity. Increased management effective-
ness can have a deep and broad impact on all aspects
of organizational performance measurement. More
effective management decision making can lead to
improved levels of service, enhanced products (e.g.,
via better product positioning, improved features), in-
creased market share, and more and better market
linkages.
Perhaps the most profound and significant changes
in organizations occur when IS, work systems, and
business processes all change in unison, which then
result in significant changes in organizational perfor-
mance. These simultaneous work system and IS
changes will result in improved sociotechnical systems
because when work system and human systems are
both improved together and in harmony, a synergis-
tic effect occurs that then results in significant and
9902.ch299 3/12/02 10:42 AM Page 14
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299-14
simultaneous improvements in quality of work life
and in organizational goal achievement (Garrity,
2001). Business process redesign is the study of busi-
ness process changes and how best to achieve dra-
matic improvements in organizational performance
through the redesign of work practices. Recently, re-
searchers have called for IS development practices
that take into account the codesign of work systems
and IS. It is believed that improved business processes
will lead to better organizational performance.
The interface satisfaction dimension of IS success
captures the IS specific design characteristics that en-
hance or negatively impact task support, decision sup-
port, and quality of work life satisfaction (see Fig. 3,
the human–machine system viewpoint). By measuring
IS success at the individual level of analysis, we can de-
termine the direct affect of IS characteristics (inter-
face satisfaction) on people and examine how these
effects ultimately influence perceived organizational
impacts. Ultimately, users are best able to assess IS
success from their vantage point, as components of
the organizational system, the sociotechnical system,
and the human–machine system.
The use of general systems theory (GST) provides
a unified vision of the multiple systems and system
components involved in complex organizations. GST
considers systems from an abstract perspective, thus
allowing us to envision work systems, IS, and human
or sociotechnical systems using the same paradigm. It
is clear that organizations are best viewed from a GST
perspective so that we may consider how IS can best
fit within the structure of work systems, business
processes, and human systems.
Since GST uses simple, abstract definitions and
concepts, understanding IS success using this frame-
work can be extended regardless of changes in tech-
nology. In other words, GST uses notions of systems,
components, goals, and design and thus ignores how
systems accomplish their goals. Changes in technol-
ogy can easily be incorporated into new dimensions
of IS success.
VI. THE FUTURE OF COMPUTING
AND THE EVOLUTION OF INFORMATION
SYSTEMS SUCCESS
Trends in information technology and electronic com-
merce are providing IS planners with both opportu-
nities and problems because it is not currently clear
how these technologies can be best applied to affect
firm performance. However, the development of IS
success measurement constructs can aid practitioners
Success Measures of Information Systems
by providing empirical evidence to substantiate strate-
gic applications of new technology. One can extend
the current success model through the identification
of new, major areas of potential impact that can then
be developed into IS success dimensions.
While the current four dimensions of IS success
presented here cover the contribution of IS success to Au: 3 or 4
organizational goals, the IS used earlier as examples dimensions
may be thought of as internal IS. However, increas- of
ingly IS may be developed and included as compo- IS success ?
nents of corporations’ products and services. In order
to account for new types of systems, the IS success
model must be adapted to include new major areas of
potential impact.
The new major areas of impact we have identified
and their corresponding success dimensions are: (1) IS
that support and that are components of products and
services (product and service support satisfaction),
(2) IS that support and link to external organizations
(market linkage support satisfaction), and (3) IS that
support and alter communication within organizations
(communication and structural support satisfaction).
Each of these dimensions is discussed later.
A. New Dimensions of Information
Systems Success
As IS become important components of other facets of
organizations, new dimensions of IS success can be in-
corporated into the IS success framework. As discussed
earlier, IS are becoming an important tool for differ-
entiating products and services. This can be done in a
number of ways, including providing IS as an actual
part of the product (e.g., automobiles with geographic
map support) and through product customization. Cus-
tomization is the creation or modification of a product
or service based on a specific customer’s needs, thereby
increasing the product’s value for that customer and
ultimately company profits. The Internet is one tech-
nology that has provided the capability to customize
products to customers. Customer tracking technolo-
gies such as writing cookies to the user’s computer,
database marketing, and the use of intelligent agents
can allow for increased customization. No doubt ubiq-
uitous computing and newer technologies will provide
even greater capabilities.
Recall that from the perspective of GST that an or-
ganization is a set of components (i.e., the organiza-
tion structure, departments, or functional areas)
arranged by design to accomplish one or more ob-
jectives such as profitability and other organizational
goals. The open systems view of an organization takes
 9902.ch299 3/12/02 10:42 AM Page 15
Success Measures of Information Systems
an additional step and allows for many possible struc-
tural arrangements outside the organizational system
boundary. In the current business environment, tra-
ditional company boundaries are beginning to blur as
IS are increasingly being used to forge strategic al-
liances with external organizations.
Finally, revisiting Bowditch and Buono’s multivari-
ate, open system framework of organizations, we can
also imagine how future IS will likely affect the ad-
ministrative and structural configuration. As is already
apparent, recent Internet-based technologies have
served to alter communication patterns and, in some
cases, allowed organizations to assume flatter struc-
tures. With the peer-to-peer models of computing, it
is likely that future organizations may evolve into hy-
brid organizational structures that leverage this tech-
nology to its fullest.
The analysis of IS using GST provides an ideal
framework for understanding the role of IS in orga-
nizations. GST considers systems from an abstract per-
spective, thus allowing us to envision work systems, IS
and human or sociotechnical systems using the same
paradigm. It is clear that organizations are best viewed
from a GST perspective so that we may consider the
multiple and sometimes conflicting goals of work sys-
tems, business processes, human systems, and IS. In-
deed, one may view the fundamental concepts of IS
simply as a special case of a work system. Under-
standing the fundamental concepts of IS and how
they relate to the larger context of organizational sys-
tems and human systems allows us to have a better un-
derstanding of the goals of IS. Understanding IS goals
is fundamental toward understanding IS success.
SEE ALSO THE FOLLOWING ARTICLES
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299-15
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