Applied Computing

"Effectiveness is a measure of how well a solution, an information management strategy or a network work and whether each achieves its intended results. Measures of effectiveness in a solution include completeness, readability, attractiveness, clarity, accuracy, accessibility, timeliness, communication of message, relevance and useability. Measures of effectiveness of an information management strategy include integrity of data, security, ease of retrieval and currency of files. Measures of effective networks include reliability and maintainability" 

There are many ways to evaluate effectivness of a software solution:

Completeness - Is all the output complete? Does the user need anything outside of the system to do the task?

Attractiveness - Has the design elements created a solution that is appealing and clearly realted to the system's function?

Clarity/Readability - Is it clear enough for users to read to complete a task using the system?

Accuracy - Is the output from the system always correct?

Accessibility - Is the interface easy to use for all the users? The design of the interface needs to pay attention to the characteristics and limitatin of end users. 

Timeliness - Is the entry, processing of data and the production of output information completed in a time frame that allows practical use of th eoutput?

Communication of Message - 

Relevance - Is the data that has been included in the output relevent to the needs of the user? 

Useability - Given the user characteristics, how easy is the solution to use?

"Efficiency is a measure of how much time, cost and effort is applied to achieve intended results. Measures of efficiency in a solution could include the speed of processing, its functionality and the cost of file manipulation. Measures of efficiency in a network include its productivity, processing time, operational costs and level of automation."