The costs of information technology initiatives are almost always underestimated. We tend to under-appreciate their complexity and we lack good models or guides for identifying all cost factors.

The following factors demand serious consideration in up-front analysis and cost estimation. The better we get at accounting for them, the more useful our cost models will become.

• The more complex the network of relationships, the more costly it will be to establish, maintain, and manage.
• The further your current environment is from your envisioned one, the more costly.
• The less similar existing technologies are to desired technologies, the more costly.
• The more interdependent the tasks, the higher the risk of failure.
• The more integration intended in the final product, the more costly.
• The more data sources and the greater their differences, the more it will cost to make use of them.