How Agile is the BiSL framework? The Case of the Dutch Ministry of Defence.

In the upcoming digital transformation era more and more IT changes get implemented quickly on an agile way like for example the Scrum method. Besides that, there are stable legacy IT Platforms where IT Demand is managed plan driven. To deal with these different technological developments organizations choose for BiModal IT, where organizations support both "old" legacy IT platforms as well as "new" agile front end IT platforms and therefor forced to use different IT Governance frameworks. For various reasons (cost-increasing effect, time consuming), this is not desirable. Therefore, in this study we investigate the possibility to handle the two technological developments within the same framework. To manage IT Demand in the Netherlands the Business Information Service Library (BiSL) framework is frequently used. BiSL is a process framework that describes activities to link business with IT. A case study was performed within the Dutch Ministry of Defence and investigated the following research question: Does the BiSL framework support agile realization of IT Changes? Based on the theory of BiSL and Scrum, a conceptual model was developed in which seven themes were defined. On these themes semi-structured interviews were conducted. In total five IT change projects were analysed in three different domains.. The results show that the BiSL framework can support parts of the agile demand and implementation of IT changes, but there are also some considerations to bear in mind. These considerations are mainly non IT related. When introducing an agile method like Scrum into the organization it is important to look at aspects of Management & Organization, People, Process and Technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]