IT Governance and Its Agile Dimensions

Abstract

Dynamic business environments call for companies' organizational agility as being able to sense the changes in competitive environments and respond accordingly. A flexible IT environment facilitates this aim but contrasts with the structuration of IT organization through IT governance. We analyze how scaling agile frameworks as blueprints for agile IT organizations solve the contrast between structuration embedded in IT governance and agility. We see converging business and IT in structure and strategy as facilitator for resolving this conflict. In detail, we compare eight scaling agile frameworks on how IT governance is covered, how IT governance decisions are made and whether business IT convergence is achieved. We conclude that IT governance is still predominantly top down decision-making and focuses on traditional business IT alignment instead of business IT convergence. With our analysis, we provide a comprehensive base for organizations to choose from when approaching their specific agility challenges.