ASSESSMENT OF INVESTMENT ATTRACTIVENESS AND MATURITY OF IT PROJECTS: A SELECTION METHODOLOGY FOR MARKET LAUNCH

The selection of IT projects for market launch is complicated by the fact that purely financial metrics produce biased estimates at early stages, when most of the outlay goes into intellectual work and the value of the product rests on untested behavioural hypotheses. The objective of this study is to formulate a selection methodology that couples the assessment of investment attractiveness with the assessment of product maturity and of the environment in which the product will operate. The study is based on a comparative analysis of the literature on investment attractiveness, of technology readiness scales (TRL, TPRL) and of enterprise digital maturity models, followed by their adaptation to software products. A three-loop methodology is proposed: an investment loop, a product and technology loop, and a market and organisational loop. Each loop is unpacked into twelve to eighteen criteria scored on a five-point scale with a verbal descriptor for every score, supplemented by stop-factors acting as a logical filter rather than a weighted criterion, and by a minimum threshold calculated separately for each loop. The results are aggregated in an attractiveness-versus-maturity decision matrix whose four quadrants correspond to four management actions: launch, staged further investment, alternative use of the finished solution, and closure. Recording readiness by component rather than for the project as a whole, and repeating the procedure at life-cycle control points, prevents high scores on one dimension from masking critical gaps on another. The methodology is applicable to product portfolio management in IT companies.