Towards a Framework to Structure and Assess Strategic IT/IS Management

This paper proposes a reference framework for strategic IT/IS management (SITISM) that structures the fields of action and decision-making of senior IT managers. Since there have been approaches to do so in the past, we integrate models described in literature. We then use extensive field work to construct and evaluate our framework. We argue that structuring SITISM leads to comparability. Therefore we use our framework as a foundation to assess a corporate IT/IS department, thereby further evaluating our approach. To prepare this assessment we have conducted a longitudinal study that uses a set of questionnaires derived from our proposed SITISM reference framework. The data gathered from 129 responses serves as a basis for the comparative assessment. The suggested reference framework proves to be a viable approach to structure the domain of SITISM in various organizational settings, especially taking into account the market-oriented transition of IT/IS departments. We used an in-depth field study for evaluation purposes. It supports our suggestion that the framework allows for the comparability needed for assessment projects. On these grounds, the research reported on in this paper contributes to the discipline of strategic IT/IS management by giving a new impulse to structure this complex and changing domain.