A Method for Analyzing IT Service Strategy in Municipal Governments from Nicaragua

The importance of IT strategy is generally accepted, though in practice this may vary from one IT organization to another. The design of a formal IT strategy may be required or not, depending on the environment, but, independently of this, strategic decisions still must be made and therefore strategic practices are performed. In order to make any improvement in strategic practices, awareness of their current state in the IT organization is needed. This paper proposes a method for analyzing IT service strategy in the context of IT organizations in municipal governments; the main issues considered are both peopleand organization-related (e.g. internal service providers, prioritized cost-effectiveness, current practices oriented to tactical and operational activities, etc.). This method decomposes the analysis from two different perspectives: strategic practices in use and maturity level of such practices. The method was tested in two municipal governments from Nicaragua.