ABSTRACT
If the information systems practice is not evaluated, it is not possible to know whether it has been worth the effort. It also can result in an inability to abstract learning into future policies, procedures, processes and methods. In practice, evaluation has taken a secondary role. Sometimes, it is often not undertaken at all; or it is undertaken halfheartedly, because of the immediacy, imperatives and challenges of practice; or it is undertaken badly, because there is a poor conceptualization of some key characteristics of the process of evaluation, e.g. what it is that is being evaluated, how to undertake the evaluation, and confusion as to the purpose (e.g. is it for learning, or for control of project etc.). This chapter will discuss the characteristics of a process of evaluation as it is relevant to information systems practice.
