Governance of Lightweight IT

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Ralf Plattfaut
• Subject Area: Data Management, Data-Intensive Systems, Computer Science Methods in Business Informatics
• Term: since 2024
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 541177056

Organizations from the private and public sector are facing a massive and increasing pressure to digitalize themselves. One way to achieve quick and innovative digital solutions of business processes, products, or business models is the use of lightweight IT. Lightweight IT is a “socio-technical knowledge regime, driven by competent users’ need for solutions, enabled by the consumerisation of digital technology, and realized through innovation processes” (Bygstad 2017). Examples of such technologies include Robotic Process Automation, Self-BI solutions, or other low code development platforms. One challenge of employing lightweight IT is IT governance. IT governance is the processes, mechanisms, and structures of decision making and competencies regarding IT. Traditional IT governance is well understood. It is shaped by different external and internal contextual factors such as goals of the organization, general level of centralization, or mimetic isomorphism. However, such an understanding is missing for lightweight IT. The proposed project GovLIT aims at creating such an understanding. Firstly, we will identify external and internal contextual factors that shape the governance of lightweight IT and study their impact on governance structures, processes, and mechanisms. Secondly, we will analyze the impact of governance on the success of employing lightweight IT in organizations. Building on this, we will thirdly create and evaluate a decision support methodology that allows organizations to better shape their governance with regards to lightweight IT. To this end, we will employ qualitative methods and conduct design science research based on a systematic literature analysis. Using configurational comparative methods, we will analyze 12 to 16 case studies for causal relations between contextual factors, governance, and success. The project is based on significant prior work in the areas of governance (e.g., IT governance, governance of lightweight IT, and business process management governance) and lightweight IT (e.g., comparison with other concepts, specific technologies, and critical success factors).

• DFG Programme: Research Grants