IT Portfolio Management: Control Problems in a Public Organization

As public organizations increasingly rely on IT-enabled development to provide faster cycle times and better services, IT Project Portfolio Management (IT PPM) has become a high priority issue. This research adopts engaged scholarship to investigate IT PPM practices within a large local government. The investigation applies Control Theory to analyze rich data from the local government covering multiple levels of analysis and several units with quite diverse functions to address the following question: how does a large public organization control IT PPM and what problems are caused by this control? By drawing on the theory’s distinction between different modes of control five problems in control is identified: (1) weak accountability processes between the political and the administrative level, (2) weak accountability processes between director level and the IT executives, (3) IT projects established on incomplete information about internal recourses, (4) Lack of operational goals to hold IT projects accountable, (5) No account of actual IT project costs. These results may be used to inform further research into IT PPM and to help managers improve IT PPM practices in public organizations in their effort of increase the level of e-Government.