The Institute of Independent Analysts (IIA), an examining body, is considering replacing its conventional assessment process with computer-based assessment which produces instant results to the candidate. A business case has been developed for the computer-based assessment project. Figure 1, extracted from the business case, shows the financial appraisal of the project. It uses a discount rate of 8%. The NPV of the project is $10,925.
Figure 1: Financial cost/benefit of the computer-based assessment project
An explanation of the costs and benefits is given below.
Initial software – refers to the cost of buying the computer-based assessment software package from the vendor. The software actually costs $375,000, but a further $25,000 has been added to reflect bespoke changes which the IIA requires. These changes are not yet agreed, or defined in detail. Indeed, there have been some problems in actually specifying these requirements and understanding how they will affect the administrative processes of the IIA.
Software maintenance – This will be priced at 10% of the final cost of the delivered software. This is currently estimated at $400,000; hence a cost of $40,000 per annum.
Question bank – refers to the cost of developing a question bank for the project. This is a set of questions which the software package stores and selects from when producing an examination for an individual candidate. Questions will be set by external consultants at $50 for each question they successfully deliver to the question bank. It is expected that further questions will need to be added (and current ones amended) in subsequent years.
Security – refers to security provided at computer-based assessment centres. This price has already been agreed with an established security firm who have guaranteed it for the duration of the project.
Disruption – refers to an expected temporary decline in IIA examinations staff productivity and staff morale during the implementation of the computer-based assessment solution.
Marker fees – manual marking is undertaken in the current conventional assessment process. There will no longer be any requirement for markers to undertake this manual marking. All examinations will be automatically marked.
Admin saving – concerns reduction in examinations staff at IIA headquarters. The actual savings will partly depend on the detailed requirements currently being discussed with the software package provider. It is still unclear how this will affect the administrative process.
Extra income – the IIA expects candidates to be attracted by the convenience of computer-based assessment. Other competing institutions do not offer this service. The extra income is the IIA’s best guess at the amount of income which will result from this new assessment initiative.
The IIA is also putting in place a benefits management process for all projects. The IIA director is concerned that project managers are just moving on to other projects and not taking responsibility for the benefits initially established in the business case.
Required:
(a) Critically evaluate the financial case (cost/benefit) of the computer-based assessment project. (15 marks)
(b) Benefit owners, benefits maps and benefits realisation are important concepts in benefits management process.
Explain each of these concepts and their potential application to the computer-based assessment project. (10 marks)