IT Alignment as a Roadmap for Digital Transformation Success

Digital transformation undertaken in many public organisations often fail to result in the anticipated results. Given the recognition of the important role of IT alignment as one of the prerequisites for digital transformation, this study explores how public organisations can improve the degree of IT alignment. Thus, a case study is conducted in four sub-cities within a city administration, applying interviews and internal documents as multiple sources of data. The findings indicate that public organisations are likely to succeed in their digital transformation attempts if they can appropriately manage IT alignment-related factors. These factors identified—organisational structure, organisational culture, organisational agility, leadership skills, human resource management, digital metrics, external domain alignment, and stakeholder relationships—are categorised and presented as managerial or organisational. The contributions of the study for research and practice are presented.