An executive asked me once, please would  you provide to us the guiding principles and framework that assisted in the most successful decisions in the evaluation and selection of technologies (across a wide range of enterprise enabling technologies – personal productivity, desktop environment, business apps from BI to ERPs and beyond, networking, security, infrastructure etc). After a long presentation where we walked through a multi-dimensional, multi-parameter framework that allowed for evaluation and rating of technologies on an array of aspects (macro-level parameters such as market outlook, vendor longevity and financial performance, positioning on Gartner’s Magic Quadrant; micro-parameters such as feature and functionality, resource availability, performance in the company’s industry segment et al), the team of twenty executives and managers seemed to be divided into two groups. One set of people wanted to know more details – parameter definitions, information availability, how to scope and score, the ratings and how sensitive they were. The other set of people (smaller group) sat back and asked about the objectivity of the ratings, since these would finally be assigned by people (ranging from “experts” and “super-users”, to “informed users” and just regular business process owners). Both perspectives are important and have their place in the process of evaluation and selection of technologies.

But in the overall scheme of things, the selection and decision-making of technologies in the enterprise context is an emotional decision. Or one that involves emotions including past association, history of success/ familiarity and other (external) aspects of business including potential balance of trade with the vendors in question. People, the sooner we acknowledge these dynamics (often taking place behind the scenes) and factor them into the process, the easier it will be to get beyond the pseudo-science and into the guts of the evaluation readout. Decision-making will be more acceptable and will cause less dissonance if adequate visibility is provided!