The relationship between Agile and coevolutionary IS-alignment in a complex organization

Abstract

Contemporary organizations find themselves in a complex and turbulent environment. This is due to the fact that changes occur at a frequent and rapid pace as a result of globalization and digitalization. To stay afloat and face the competition, organizations invest in IT. However, it seems difficult for companies to achieve a good alignment between business and IT. To address the lack of business-IT alignment (BITA) in complex, turbulent environments co-evolutionary IS-alignment
(COISA) has arisen in literature. COISA are the series of co-evolutionary moves that makes IS aligned over time. There is a two-way evolution of both business and IT domains. In this thesis, a reply is given to the call for more empirical evidence to investigate COISA in complex and turbulent organizations with many different stakeholders. Therefore, a single case study has been performed to investigate COISA in an Agile software development organization in which many stakeholders are involved. Both Agile and COISA attempt to achieve a better BITA through continuous interactions between different stakeholders in complex organizations. A single case study allows us to get an in-depth understanding of the complex social phenomena that emerges during the manifestation of COISA in an Agile organization.

Date of Award	2 Feb 2020
Original language	English
Supervisor	Pien Walraven (Examiner) & Rogier van de Wetering (Co-assessor)