Challenges suggesting a need for a larger-scale

in the IT department. This subchapter will explore the following challenges identified in the IT department. First, the operational situation was very problematic.

The internal operations of the IT department were slow and inflexible. There was a

lack of resources, siloed structures, inadequate use of existing resources, and slow flow of information. Second, the IT department did not have a clear role in the municipality. While the IT department had been centralized for over ten years, it had not gained a legitimate role in the municipality. Third, there was no holistic understanding of the operational situation inside the IT department. There was no view of the way existing operations should be conducted, responsibilities were insufficiently defined, and IT portfolio management was lacking. The lack of a holistic overview also worsened the operational situation, for example, by slowing down processes. Together, these three challenges resulted in the IT department’s struggles to respond to the growing service demand, which again caused dissatisfaction among the business units and inside the IT department.

4.1.1.1 The challenging operational situation

The slowness of the IT department’s processes was one of the key issues with which the IT department was struggling. Even in smaller projects for which the IT department estimated a resolution in weeks, the processes often took months. This slowness was such a critical issue that the CIO stated: “We are facing speed pressure, not necessarily saving pressure [from the business units].” The slow operations were caused by a multitude of challenges persisting in the IT department. For example, due to inflexibility, many operational matters had to be discussed at the level of the IT steering group. This prevented this group from focusing on its main tasks, which again delayed critical financial decisions and slowed down IT projects. This indecisive and inefficient process slowed the IT department’s development operations significantly.

The IT department’s internal operations were also slowed down due to the siloed operational structure, which made it difficult for the employees responsible for different tasks to collaborate, even in situations where it was critically needed.

Collaboration was also hindered due to word-relationship problems among different siloes: “The [problem] is the interpersonal relationships, so collaboration is not working. There is no forum for discussion nor trust, so no collaboration has been established” (Consultant B). This resulted in situations where the relevant people were not necessarily invited to meetings. This again slowed down IT development projects because successful execution was not possible without the required contributions from people excluded from critical meetings. In many cases, it was also unclear who the necessary people were. IT development projects suffered from a lack of knowledge related to the

skills, competencies, and knowledge of employees. Significant amounts of time were lost since people had to search for individuals with the appropriate knowledge.

Because of the issues with collaboration and siloed organizational structures, the IT department also suffered from a poor flow of information. IT department employees did not have a clear view of what the other employees were working on.

As many employees had been assigned to work for individual business units of the municipality, such as education or culture services, they had little understanding of the work done in other business units.

The IT department also faced issues regarding communications among the business units. On the one hand, the needs of the business units did not always reach the IT department. On the other, the business units often felt that they were left out of the loop after they had contacted the IT department. Issues regarding the poor flow of information not only caused dissatisfaction both in the IT department and among the business units but also slowed down operations significantly as necessary information was rarely readily available.

Because of the slow and inflexible operations, the IT department was struggling to use its full IT development budget. “Let me say that we have saved a lot as we have not been able to use [the budget] the way we wanted [and planned]” (Development manager).

While the slow operations tied up resources for extended periods, the inflexibility prevented the reallocation of funds when projects were halted. In most cases, the IT development of the IT department was about procuring IT. Due to the inflexible organizational structures, funds and resources allocated to projects facing issues could not be used elsewhere, which resulted in poor utilization of the budget.

The IT department was very unproductive and struggled to respond to the growing service demand of the municipality. This caused dissatisfaction but also seemed to indicate that with the current processes and structures, the IT department could not fulfill its role and help the municipality to become a pioneers in the public sector digital transformation in Finland.

4.1.1.2 Unclear role of the IT department in the municipality

In addition to its internal inefficiency issues, the IT department suffered from having an unclear role in the municipality. After the IT centralization, the IT department had not been able to provide the level of services sought via the centralization and had not gained a legitimized position as the provider of IT services.

When IT needs arose in the municipality, the IT department was not necessarily contacted. Instead, the business units tended to avoid involving the IT department

in their IT development ideas whenever possible. “We found out that the client had had discussions with the supplier for a significant period” (Account manager A). As the business units often learned of new system ideas from service providers, who did not understand the municipality’s IT infrastructure, the IT-related issues were often underrated in the business unit leading the IT development proposals. “The business unit might not have even been able to guess that [the hardware] needs to be considered as well, and now the project has gotten on the wrong track; they should have come to us when the need arose”

(Account manager A). Consequently, these projects were not necessarily in line with the existing IT infrastructure as the IT department had little to no influence on the requirements specification or a chance to evaluate how well the system would fit with the existing IT infrastructure. Because of this, when the IT department was finally involved in the project, their role was mainly pointing out problems, which decreased the business units’ desire to involve them in the first place.

4.1.1.3 Lack of holistic understanding of the operational situation

The IT department was also suffering from a lack of holistic understanding of the operational situation. This lack of understanding encompassed both the IT department’s processes and the IT infrastructure for which the IT department was responsible. For example, there was no sufficient understanding of the way IT operations, especially the IT development operations, were run. As one of the consultants pointed out: “[Earlier,] there was nothing; things just came from here and there”

(Consultant A). Shared practices were missing, and responsibilities were not properly defined. There was also no explicitly assigned decision-making power. Even lower-level issues were often brought to the IT steering group, which, as previously mentioned, slowed down the decision-making but also resulted in the steering group making decisions about practical matters they were not familiar with.

The IT department was also struggling with a poor understanding of their existing IT infrastructure and resources. For example, the IT department suffered from a tendency to acquire new IT systems even when existing ones providing similar functionalities were already in use in other parts of the municipality. The CIO was also struggling with project portfolio management as there was no holistic overview of what IT projects were ongoing in the different sections of the municipality.

EA was implemented with a desire to improve the holistic understanding of the operational situation and to enable the IT department to take a more proactive approach in the management of future IT development projects. With a more holistic understanding of the operational situation, the IT department was expected

to make more informed decisions when it came to IT development. However, despite the introduction of EA, the operational challenges remained. In the spring of 2017, EA was not contributing to a holistic understanding of the operational situation.

4.1.2 Enterprise architecture—An example of the IT department’s