IT Governance within The Swedish Armed Forces

The Swedish Armed Forces have two parallel strategy documents for governance of IT, DIT 04 and Försvarsmaktens IT-styrmodell. An effort has been initiated to consolidate these two into one. The objective of this study is to identify and compile experiences of the present governance and to identify possible improvements for future governance. The work was initiated by a document analysis of DIT 04, IT-styrmodellen, as well as the implementation of the latter, IT-processen. After the document analysis, an interview study was conducted with 20 respondents working with IS/IT in the Swedish Armed Forces. The result of the document analysis suggests that parts of the current IT governance can be developed and reused in future governance. The interview study show several areas that need to be addressed through IT governance. Seven recommendations are suggested of what the Swedish Armed Forces should consider when developing the new IT governance. These are (1) a comprehensive governance, (2) emanate on established standard, (3) clarity, simplicity and availability, (4) anchor the governance, the processes and the organization, (5) active management of the governance and the processes, (6) one IT process and (7) balanced security, utility and cost.