Enterprise Architecture in Government - Towards a Multi-Level Framework for Managing IT in Government

This paper outlines a theoretical framework for a research project in progress focusing on the management of information systems at different levels in government through the use of enterprise architecture in conjunction with the European Interoperability Framework. In response to the growing business and civilian demands for improved service and efficiency, public sectors in Europe are restructuring with e-government initiatives. Many of these e-initiatives have, however, failed to illustrate success in practice, and even though the e-government field has matured over the last few years, there is fairly little research in the ability of public institutions to evolve, develop and manage new information systems that helps realize the potential of e-government. This paper introduces enterprise architecture as an information systems architecture approach for solving various interoperability challenges at different levels of government. The paper argues that information systems architecture has been a lost realm in egovernment research, and that there is a need for a broad and integrated view that takes both organization, semantic and technology in government into account.