Stakeholder analysis in software selection involves a systematic approach to identifying, analyzing, and managing the needs and expectations of stakeholders. Engaging diverse stakeholders, including end-users, IT staff, and executive sponsors, is crucial during the software selection process. This ensures a comprehensive understanding of requirements and impact.

Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) and Analytic Network Process (ANP) are two decision-making frameworks used to solve complex problems where multiple criteria must be considered. Let's explore each of these methods in detail and how they can be applied to complex software evaluations.

Node Analysis and Scenario Planning are invaluable tools for strategic software selection. They empower organizations to anticipate and prepare for a multitude of future scenarios and their potential impacts. When it comes to selecting a software vendor, these approaches enable organizations to comprehensively assess a wide range of possible futures and evaluate the performance of each software vendor's solution under various conditions.

Portfolio Analysis is a strategic process that evaluates potential software vendors in a business investment portfolio. This method assesses risk and potential returns by considering factors such as vendor stability, technological maturity, and alignment with the organization's strategic goals. By implementing Portfolio Analysis in software vendor selection, organizations can optimize their overall software portfolio.

Real Options Analysis (ROA) is a decision-making approach that originated in financial management but has since been applied in various fields, including technology and software vendor selection. ROA focuses on assessing the value of maintaining flexibility in decision-making under uncertainty.

When faced with complex software selection choices, navigating the numerous factors involved can be difficult. That's where Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) and Decision Matrix Analysis (DMA) come into play. Both methods provide structured and transparent approaches to evaluating options, but they differ in complexity and suitability for different types of decisions.

Sigh...in the blink of an eye, AWS now has hundreds of thousands of SKUs, 180 different types of services, 17 different ways to launch a container, and has dozens upon dozens of regions and availability zones. No wonder AWS billing has become so complex to understand. Is there a fix?

I’m LV, co-founder and CEO of Taloflow, a technology selection platform built for the AI productivity era. I’ve spent more than a year interviewing over 200 enterprise IT procurement professionals and IT and Engineering decision-makers and have found that the space of software selection and procurement is undergoing a sea change in expectations. Based on the interviews, I’ve determined nine steps in the software procurement lifecycle, but these are more fluid than ever.

The world of enterprise software, SaaS, and cloud platforms has gone through a Cambrian explosion in the last half-decade, as the number of solutions available nearly doubles every two to three years. Meanwhile, the locus for decision-making has been pushed deeper into the organization, and the number of constituents impacted by each decision has also increased when choosing the right software vendor for the use case.

Companies are considering switching from Amazon S3 because of: Amazon S3 is seen as the safest choice due to the native integrations, but as object storage has become used for anything from being a cloud data lake, to storing thumbnails for blog posts, Amazon S3 can't be best-in-class in everything. The question remains, is making the switch worth it, and to whom should you switch? ‍