IT governance mechanisms patterns

Abstract

Information Technology (IT) has been used in large organizations since the 1950s, for internal and external purposes. The pervasive use of technology in organizations has created a critical dependency on IT that calls for a specific focus on IT Governance (ITG) that is essential to ensure the Business/IT alignment objectives. However, determining the right ITG mechanisms remains a complex endeavor. Therefore, we propose to perform an exploratory research and analyze several ITG case studies to elicit possible ITG mechanisms patterns used in specific organizational context. It should be noted that a pattern is something which describes a successful solution to a problem in a specific context. Our main goal is to build some theories (ITG mechanisms patterns) which we believe that will guide organizations about the suitable ITG mechanisms to implement. The research methodology adopted was Design Science Research. We finish our research with limitations, contribution and future work. © 2013 Springer-Verlag.