Enterprise Interoperability: Smart Services and Business Impact of Enterprise Interoperability

18 Review: What are the Strategies for and Benefits of Effective IT Standardization in Government?

Information technology (IT) has led to a transformation in the practices of government agencies, especially regarding the way they exchange information and provide services. Since efficiency is often set as a goal of this transformation, IT standardization and its management play an important role. Unfortunately, there is a lack of understanding of standardization – process dynamics, influencing factors, expected outcomes – in the government context. Moreover, extant studies from a private organization context have only limited applicability due to the differences with public administrations: for instance, legal framework, decision-making, strategic goals and so on. To address this gap, we review pertinent literature and IT standardization projects and derive an analysis framework that comprises: (1) determinants, (2) process stages and strategy types and (3) expected benefits. We exemplify the application of the proposed framework in one project and discuss future research towards a quantified theoretical model of IT standardization management.

18.1. Introduction

IT standards play an important role in effective and efficient service provision in government [1], [2]. For instance, standards are applied to harmonize business processes [3] and to efficiently share information [4]. In consequence, choosing a suitable standardization approach based on the context and expected benefits ...