We have written this guide with a particular audience in mind: the agency team responsible for designing, developing, and managing a Web service. Our approach is based on the experiences of similar teams in NYS who participated in the Internet Services Testbed project at the Center for Technology in Government during 1996. This guide reflects their experiences and includes the practical tools and techniques that were used, tested, and refined during the project.

We begin with an introduction. In Chapter 2, we present the key concepts relevant to a cost- performance analysis of a proposed Web-based service. Chapter 3 describes a method for approaching the decision, and the two following chapters describe specific analytic tools that we recommend to support decision making. Chapter 6 discusses options for performing the analysis, and the following chapter presents three hypothetical case examples in which these tools are applied. The final chapter identifies some of the patterns that we have observed from agencies with which we have worked over the years.

Several tools are presented in this document, including worksheets for helping estimate costs and benefits of proposed Web-based services. We plan to improve these tools based on future experience.

A comprehensive suite of guidelines for developing World Wide Web services is presented in Developing & Delivering Government Services on the World Wide Web: Recommended Practices for New York State published by the Center for Technology in Government. In that document, seven areas that are keys to developing a successful WWW system are presented.

This working paper contains expanded and revised tools and a method for two of the quantitative phases of this process: "Setting and Refining Service Objectives," and "Evaluating the Results." This working paper provides a more comprehensive suite of tools and decision models to help government agencies assess cost and performance factors for developing and delivering Web- based services. The Recommended Practices, containing the comprehensive suite of guidelines, should be considered an indispensable companion to this guide. It is available from the Center for Technology in Government as Internet Services Testbed Report ISG-1, September, 1996. These two documents together supply government managers with a set of planning tools and good practice guidelines for approaching the Web as a mode of service delivery.