Shadow IT as a Lived Practice: IT Innovations Are Developed in Interdisciplinary Teams Within the Business Departments

Abstract

The majority of IT projects are still initiated by a company’s business units and only then reactively implemented by the IT department. Due to relatively slow coordination and implementation processes, as well as long development cycles, the resulting IT solutions are often not innovative and rarely disruptive. Consequently, corporate IT is perceived as a service provider rather than a creative innovator. As a result of the increased pressure for change in digital transformation and the ever more convenient sourcing possibilities of cloud computing, the business units are becoming increasingly active with regard to IT solutions—independently and without the involvement of corporate IT. The result is the “individual data processing” or “shadow IT” phenomenon, which is viewed as problematic, specifically regarding the compliance, security, and architecture requirements. In this context, we ask ourselves whether this separation of IT and business is still appropriate in the light of digitalization. We come to the conclusion that IT innovations should ideally be created where they will be used—namely in the business departments. For this purpose, experts from all relevant areas should be involved and work together. This makes the “official shadow IT” a lived practice. In this chapter we discuss the shadow IT phenomenon and present our view on the future cooperation model between the IT department and the business units.