Evaluation of the usability of a new ITG instrument to measure hard and soft governance maturity

Abstract

IT governance (ITG) has stayed a challenging matter for years. 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 evaluate the usability of a new ITG maturity instrument that covers hard and soft ITG in detail. We conducted ten case studies and evaluated the instrument positively on usability; but feedback also revealed that the assessment questions needed improvements. We demonstrate that combining the instrument with structured interviews results in an enhanced and usable instrument to determine an organization’s current level of hard and soft ITG. We conclude that this new instrument demonstrates a way to reduce the mismatch between ITG maturity theory and practice.