IT governance – Structures, processes, and relationships in IT decision-making

Abstract

Business processes in contemporary companies often heavily rely on the supporting information systems. Moreover, today, many innovations are to a considerable extent based on new IT capabilities. In order to warrant the continuous support of existing information systems as well as the development of new IT-based solutions, organizational units are required that provide the corresponding skills and resources. In the following, the term information systems function (shortly IS function) will be employed in order to refer to the entity of these organizational units within a firm. The dispersion of IT competencies throughout the organization and the structuring of the IS function have been widely discussed in the information management literature. However, due to the rapid development of information technology, the role and structuring of IS functions has been subject to constant changes over the past decades.