Application management from a lifecycle perspective : A case study at the Social Insurance Agency

• Main Authors: Lindh, Melenie, Magnell, Rebecca
• Format: Others
• Language: English
• Published: Mittuniversitetet, Avdelningen för informations- och kommunikationssystem 2014
• Subjects: Management accounting; Application Lifecycle Management; Technical debt.; ALM; Extern Redovisning; Livscykelhantering; Teknisk skuld
• Online Access: http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:miun:diva-23526

The development of Information Technology is, according to the Swedish Government, the most important area of development. The costs of IT in governmental agencies are somewhere in between 20 to 25 billion SEK, paid by taxpayers and one of the largest cost items in the Swedish governments resources. Despite this, every third Swedish governmental agency lacks an IT-strategy and is unable to meet needs for flexibility and control. The study aims to reveal barriers that prevent an active application lifecycle management (ALM) at Swedish governmental agencies and to answer the question: “How do Swedish authorities handle their proprietary applications from a lifecycle perspective; financially and technically?” The case study will be conducted at the Social Insurance Agency (SIA). The SIA distributed, in 2010, about 6 % of the Swedish GDP and is mainly funded by grants and loans from the Swedish National Debt Office. The survey will be studied from a management accounting and ALM perspective. Management accounting is the actions within organizations to achieve financial goals. ALM is the lifecycle of an application that consists of the phases; requirements specification, development, testing, deployment and maintenance. The study will also investigate the technical debt at the governmental agencies. Technical debt refers to the work which has to be completed before an application can be considered finished. The survey is a qualitative study based on interviews with an exploratory purpose. The results are generalised to reflect a greater part of the Swedish authorities and showed that Swedish governmental agencies have inadequate handling of their proprietary applications and that each application is financially linked to one or more projects simultaneously. The models made are to facilitate the understanding of the different stages of ALM in synergy with the management accounting. Theoretically, the Maintenance phase allocates approximately 90 % of the total costs, whereas in governmental agenises it stands for about 20 %. Theoretically 10 % of the total costs are allocated to the Development phase, whereas in governmental agencies the corresponding amount is 80 %. A consequence of this is increased technical debt. The technical debt at Swedish authorities is often funded with loans, which is not allowed according to the Swedish National Debt Office. The SIA exceed budgets without asking for increased funds and according to the Swedish Audit Office, so does also 1/3 of the Swedish governmental agencies, meaning that they must handle the financial complications internally by moving funds amongst different departments and projects, also spending money meant for development on maintenance. Future studies can be made as investigations on how management accounting and ALM can be implemented on a safe and effective manner in a governmental agency.