Johan Magnusson

Professional Analysts and the Ongoing Construction of IT Governance

This article addresses the role of the professional analysts as actors within the field of IT Governance. Through a content analysis of over 400 reports from the largest commercial research firm, instances of normative statements are identified and analyzed. With the intended target group of the reports being Chief Information Officers, the findings show that the content of IT Governance has changed during the last three years. This is discussed in relation to the role that professional analysts play in an ongoing construction of IT Governance. The article concludes by identifying possible risks and benefits involved in using professional analysts as sources for best-practice, as well as calling for a more practice-based definition of IT Governance.

Introducing app stores into a packaged software ecosystem: a negotiated order perspective

This study addresses the emerging phenomena of app stores for packaged software such as enterprise resource planning ERP and customer relationship management CRM systems. Through employing the technology of app stores, ERP and CRM vendors have been reported as shifting from delivering software as a service SaaS to platform as a service PaaS. Through an in-depth case study of one ERP vendors app store initiative, the study identifies and discusses instances of negotiated order of the ecosystem. The results show that the introduction of an app store for ERP brings with it the threat of restructuring both the incumbent business model and the power relationships nested in the ecosystem, thus spurring intensified instances of negotiated order. This is discussed in terms of different arenas of conflict for negotiated order.

Infusing an Architectural Framework with Neo-Institutional Theory: Reports from Recent Change Management Initiatives within the Swedish Public Administration

Swedish public administration is currently undergoing radical change towards dynamic models of governance relying on a high level of inter-governmental collaboration. This high level of interoperability between governmental organizations and the subsequent quality of service for citizens and companies depending on the services provided by government is summarized in the vision-statement of the 24-hour government (24-timmarsmyndigheten). According to the primary actor‘s (Statskontoret) recommendation, this vision is to be realized through the application of web-service based technology, resulting in a Service Oriented Architecture (SOA). The purpose of this paper is to investigate a possible infusion of a previously developed architectural framework for change management with neo-institutional theory. The results show that neo-institutional theory could be used to infuse the architectural framework with aspects regarding primarily history and legitimacy, but also with an overall contradictory perception of change. Given the vast differences in fundamental assumptions underlying the architectural framework and neo-institutional theory, the paper concludes that these results are however somewhat problematic.

Why I act differently: studying patterns of legitimation among CIOs through motive talk

Purpose – IT governance has become the recognized norm system for chief information officers. The purpose of this paper is to understand how CIOs relate to these norms, by studying how they legitimate incompliance with the norms.Design/methodology/approach – The paper uses an interpretive, qualitative, structured interview study with 18 CIOs in large Swedish organizations regarded as having excellent IT governance practice, using motive talk as analytical lens to identify the informants’ relationship to norms.Findings – The study identifies norm‐specific patterns for how CIOs legitimate incompliance with IT governance, finding that CIOs use a combination of excuse and justifications as strategies of legitimation. The study also finds that CIOs display a tendency of not contesting IT governance‐related norms unless these are in conflict with neighboring professional jurisdictions. This is regarded as an identification of the “margins” of IT governance.Research limitations/implications – The study illustrat...

Change management implications for network organizations

The purpose of this paper is to investigate possible change management implications for networks organizations. This is achieved through applying six critical management issues (CMIs) from the change management framework DELTA on a taxonomy consisting of three generic types of network organizations. The paper is built on an empirical base comprised of over 150 expert interviews and 121 questionnaire respondents. Questionnaire respondents and interviewed experts represent middle to top management of companies of all sizes involved in networks. The results show that the framework applied to the change management in the different networks highlights and addresses different management activities per CMI. Given this, we discuss the differences in managerial implications that the framework identifies for the different types of networks.

Process Methodology in ERP-Related Education: A Case from Swedish Higher Education

There has long been a debate regarding the inclusion of IT into the curriculum for business students. With IT being a natural part of their coming working environment, the under-developed use of for instance Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solutions has suffered much critique. At the same time the process oriented approach has saturated the business environment. With ERP systems designed using a process oriented approach, this case explores the potential use of a flow from business opportunity to general ledger as a means for achieving both ERP and business knowledge enhancement among the students. As a joint initiative between academia and industry, a first attempt at using this approach was applied and tested in Sweden during the fall of 2008. The purpose of this case is to present the outline of the initiative, along with an evaluation and key lessons-learned.

Conceptual fluidity in the study of accounting information systems: the case of corporate performance management

The aim of this study is to contribute to the field of accounting information systems AIS through an illustration and discussion of the conceptual fluidity of one specific technology corporate performance management, CPM. This is achieved through a synthesising content analysis of proprietary industry analyst reports from 2002 to 2010. The study finds that CPM displays a high degree of conceptual fluidity, and, based on this, two research strategies informed by the sociomaterial perspective are proposed. The study discusses how an increased understanding of the conceptual fluidity of AIS technologies can be taken into account in future research. The implication of this study is a more informed approach in the study of; and, the design, adoption and diffusion of AIS technologies.

Intentional Decentralization and Instinctive Centralization: A Revelatory Case Study of the Ideographic Organization of IT

The aim of this study is to contribute to the body of knowledge surrounding centralization and decentralization of IT within the field of IT Governance. This is achieved through a revelatory case study of an ideographic organization, seen from the perspective of Social Transformation Processes. The study finds that the discussion in regards to whether IT should be centralized or decentralized is misdirected and needs to take additional aspects into account. As the case illustrates, organizations that hold dual identities encompass both organizational states simultaneously, whereby intentional decentralization is coupled with an instinctive centralization. The study illustrates limitations in the distinction between centralized and decentralized IT, as well as opens up for future studies of the organization of IT utilizing the perspective of social transformation processes.

Applied Business Intelligence in the making : An inter-university case from Swedish higher education

There has long been a debate regarding the inclusion of IT into the curriculum for business students. With IT being a natural part of their coming working environment, the under-developed use of for instance Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and Business Intelligence (BI) solutions has suffered much critique. As a response to this, the Centre for Business Solutions and the Scandinavian Academic Network for Teaching Enterprise Systems (SANTE) have created a joint initiative together with the industry. Through making the full accounts from a medium-sized manufacturing company available to the students through a specially designed BI solution, the students are given the task to identify potential problems with the accounts. The assignment is intended to be run in the form of a competition, where the students from different Swedish universities compete in analyzing the company in a given time-frame. The purpose of this case is to present the outline and outset for the competition, together with some initial reflections on the setup-phase.

Governing technology debt: beyond technical debt

Technical debt has successfully captured the interest of practitioners and researchers alike. We argue that the concept of technical debt holds much more currency within the strategic Information Systems literature. Hence, we have developed a research framework for expanding the concept of technical debt into a new concept we dub “technology debt”. This expanded concept aims at capturing the path-dependencies reported in literature in regard to digital investments, and to make these both researchable and manageable. Technology debt is defined as the constraining effects of previous governance decisions on future decisions, including technical debt as important factor, but not unique. According to the findings, technology debt is a feasible method for highlighting the constraining aspects of IT investments and including these in the investment evaluation by governing body. This offers support for corporate stakeholders involved in the decision-making surrounding IT related investments, particularly in IT governance and management processes.