-3

I am aware of the questions regarding hardware upgrades. Especially the following ones:

The question is how to create a quantifiable and unbiased means of justifying the expense, namely through tracking software.

The question originates here https://superuser.com/questions/1128454/how-to-track-program-unresponsiveness?noredirect=1#comment1615859_1128454.

I wanted to extend the question to the workplace to see if anyone else has an idea of how to track the usability of a particular piece of software to justify hardware upgrades.

Improve this question
7
  • 2
    The scope of this site is helping users navigate workplace issues (dealing with their fellow employees). Asking advice on a business process feels a little out of scope.
    – AndreiROM
    Commented Sep 27, 2016 at 16:15
  • 1
    Screens-shattered-by-frustrated-users per second ?
    – Peter
    Commented Sep 27, 2016 at 16:27
  • @AndreiROM Perhaps I can see how this might be rather specific, but figuring out a way to quantify business expenses would be a means of navigating workplace issue of crappy equipment?
    – Bluebird
    Commented Sep 27, 2016 at 16:35
  • @Peter Gonna get a call from HR with that.
    – Bluebird
    Commented Sep 27, 2016 at 16:35
  • 1
    If you can't immediately point to a place where making this investment will save the company money, you aren't ready to make the request.
    – keshlam
    Commented Sep 27, 2016 at 21:34

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
3

The question is how to create a quantifiable and unbiased means of justifying the expense, namely through tracking software.

Any justification can be made quantifiable - all you have to do is pick a variable to track. In your case, you seem to have chosen "unresponsiveness". Turn that into a number like "average response time" and voila - it's quantified.

But all justifications are biased. In this case, the bias is choosing "unresponsiveness" as the variable. That may or may not be convincing to those whose opinion matters.

You would be better off talking to whoever has to approve the expense you are trying to justify. Ask them "what measures could I provide that would adequately justify the upgrade?" and then go from there.

Improve this answer
6
  • I'm aware of the measures, namely cost-benefit in the form of time lost and worker productivity. However compiling the data to back it up is what I am having trouble with.
    – Bluebird
    Commented Sep 27, 2016 at 16:36
  • @BobtheBuilder - so it's a software question (how do I track the usability of a particular piece of software), rather than how to justify a purchase?
    – WorkerDrone
    Commented Sep 27, 2016 at 16:39
  • More or so yeah, I am trying to generate the data to justify the expense. Know of any?
    – Bluebird
    Commented Sep 27, 2016 at 16:42
  • 1
    Sorry. I think asking for software recommendations is off-topic in this forum. Maybe there's an IT forum you could use?
    – WorkerDrone
    Commented Sep 27, 2016 at 16:58
  • 2
    There is a software recommendation stack, you could try there as well.
    – user41891
    Commented Sep 27, 2016 at 18:27
1

You seem to be getting your business case backwards. You want to start with the problem "Our team is wasting x man hours per week on waiting for responses from this tool." Then you go through possible solutions with cost estimates including the null case of doing nothing.

Making a business case for buying a tool to make a business case is going to require some corporate magic so be prepared to find another way. You may be able to track the number of requests per day and experimentally determine delay frequency and average delay time so you could use that as a rough estimate to bootstrap the process.

Improve this answer

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .