Diminishing the Gap Between IT Governance Maturity Theory and Practice: Renewing the Approach

Abstract

IT governance research suggests the existence of a gap between theoretical frameworks and practice. Although current ITG research is largely focused on hard governance (structure, processes), soft governance (behavior, collaboration) is equally important and might be crucial to close the gap. The goal of this study is to determine what IT governance maturity models are available and if there remains a mismatch. The authors conducted a systematic literature review to create an overview of available IT governance maturity models. The study shows five new IT governance maturity models were introduced. Only one of the new IT governance maturity models covers hard and soft IT governance in detail. This model and corresponding instrument was used to illustrate its usability in practice. The authors demonstrate that combining the instrument with structured interviews results in a usable instrument to determine an organization's current maturity level of hard and soft IT governance.