Morphological Analysis: A Method for Selecting ICT Applications in South African Government Service Delivery

Abstract

Successful ICT projects depend on complex, interrelated sociological and technical factors for which there are no standard theoretical framework for prediction or analysis. Morphological analysis is a problem-solving method for defining, linking, and evaluating problem spaces that are inherently nonquantitative. In this article, we show how our research team created a telephony impact model using morphological analysis to strategically select a national ICT telephony project for South Africa from several possibilities, based on nonquantitative, socio-technical criteria. The telephony impact model provides a rigorous framework to the diagnostic and planning phases of our action research that is a vast improvement over “best practices” guidelines. We believe that this approach takes a first step toward predictive models and theories for ICT deployment.