Managing IT standardization in government: Towards a descriptive reference model

Government agencies aim to provide seamless services and data flows in order to increase the benefits of information technology (IT) for both citizens and companies. This chapter proposes the mediation of the standardization process by using a descriptive reference model for standardization artifacts. IT standardization management is challenged by the complexity of government procedures, stakeholder dependencies and their benefit expectations, and is often ineffective in practice. The chapter addresses the challenges with regard to extant research on mediating the standardization process through reference models. It focuses on defining a reference model which allows for a mutual understanding between public administrations with regard to modeling particular standards. To develop the descriptive reference model, the chapter reviews on standardization in government and applied the results to ten cases of government IT standardization projects in Germany.