Discovering and analyzing alignment problems in a public organization

Abstract

Strategic alignment is a key challenge in many organizations, even in the public sector. This paper concentrates on the formal aspects of alignment (organisational design), the method is based on a strategic alignment perspective-driven approach, by integrating alignment concepts to enterprise architecture management models. Misalignment symptoms were translated into architecture models providing testable rules for analysis. The empirical investigation focuses on a road management authority, and rule testing approaches were used to identify formally described misalignment symptoms in the EA models. Several misalignment symptoms were discovered and assessed with the framework. The proposed approach can be an efficient method to analyse alignment problems and facilitate strategic harmonization in public sector organizations.