The State of IT Governance: Patterns of Variation at the Central Government Level in Norway

The aim of this article is to analyze IT governance practices in the Norwegian government ministries. We seek to identify the ministries IT governance regimes, and, more specifically, the different government sectors policies and principles regarding the use of ICTs. Moreover, we seek to explain differences in IT governance regimes across ministries. The empirical evidence has been collected from policy documents, budget proposals and other document. These data have been supplemented by qualitative interviews with key civil servants in the various government ministries. The analysis of the data is based on a theoretical framework consisting of four IT governance models and a classification of the functions that ICTs fulfill within the various government sectors. Our findings indicate that there is some correlation between IT governance models and ICT functions.