ABSTRACT
An IT procurement process, formal or informal, exists in every organization that acquires information technology. As users of information systems increasingly find themselves in roles as customer of multiple technology vendors, this IT procurement process assumes greater management significance. Yet despite this trend, there has to date been little, if any, research investigating the IT procurement process. This chapter presents a model of the IT procurement process which was developed by the SIM Working Group to provide a framework for studying IT procurement. It can be argued that the SDLC was an essential evolutionary step which made possible the more advanced approaches of rapid prototyping, object-oriented analysis, and joint application development. The IT procurement process framework might provide a similar evolutionary function. The IT Procurement Process Framework was developed by a twelve-member subgroup comprised of senior IT procurement executives from large North American companies.
