Technical Debt in the Municipality Sector - The Missing Link with Citizens and Silofication

Persson, Per,1968Gothenburg University,Göteborgs universitet,Institutionen för tillämpad informationsteknologi (GU),Department of Applied Information Technology (GU) (author)

Public sector organizations suffer from high levels of technical debt (TD). TD leaves digital infrastructures in a derelict state, making digital transformations costly and risky. Though there is growing research about TD, most studies focus on private businesses, and there is a lack of research about TD in the public sector. In this study, we conduct a case study examining the TD in a Swedish municipality, analyzing archival data such as project reports, municipality blog posts on digital transformation, and goals to improve citizen experience. We focus on four information systems that support permit application processes. Analysis results reveal the common TD types, consequences, and possible causes. Departments work in silos, the case manager perspective is prevalent in requirements, and the citizens only have a limited passive role as system users leading to various types of TD and high costs when integrating legacy systems into a coherent IT architecture. By diving deep into the data from a specific forerunner municipality, we identify TD and increase our understanding of how debt influences digital transformation. Results give a stable ground for further research and practice on mitigating the debt.

Zhang, YixinGothenburg University,Göteborgs universitet,Institutionen för tillämpad informationsteknologi (GU),Department of Applied Information Technology (GU)(Swepub:gu)xzhyix (author)
Asatiani, Aleksandre,1987Gothenburg University,Göteborgs universitet,Institutionen för tillämpad informationsteknologi (GU),Department of Applied Information Technology (GU)(Swepub:gu)xasata (author)
Lindman, Juho,1979Gothenburg University,Göteborgs universitet,Institutionen för tillämpad informationsteknologi (GU),Department of Applied Information Technology (GU)(Swepub:gu)xlijuh (author)
Rudmark, DanielGothenburg University,Göteborgs universitet,Institutionen för tillämpad informationsteknologi (GU),Department of Applied Information Technology (GU)(Swepub:gu)xrudda (author)
Göteborgs universitetInstitutionen för tillämpad informationsteknologi (GU) (creator_code:org_t)

In:The 14th Scandinavian Conference of Information Systems: Association for Information Systems

By the author/editor: Persson, Per, 19 ...; Zhang, Yixin; Asatiani, Aleksa ...; Lindman, Juho, 1 ...; Rudmark, Daniel

About the subject

SOCIAL SCIENCES: SOCIAL SCIENCES; and Economics and Bu ...; and Business Adminis ...

SOCIAL SCIENCES: SOCIAL SCIENCES; and Political Scienc ...; and Public Administr ...

NATURAL SCIENCES: NATURAL SCIENCES; and Computer and Inf ...; and Information Syst ...

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