Information Systems Function Architecture – A Brief Review

Information Technology (IT) and Information Systems (IS) are vital organizational resources. IT/IS help organizations to effectively respond to evolving business needs and emerging opportunities, enhancing competitiveness. A capable organizational IS Function is necessary to effectively tackle the current challenges and responsibilities of the IT/IS. The IS Function is made up of several components that must be organized through a structured representation to facilitate their understanding. This paper reviews and discusses the IS Function Architecture as a valuable management tool for organizing IS Function elements and providing a holistic view of its reality. The findings indicate that the architecture of the IS Function must be tailored to the unique reality of each organization, as no two architectures are identical. As the architecture helps to deal with the complexity of the IS Function, facilitating its understanding through an organized structure that supports the identification of development opportunities, it is essential to keep it up to date to reflect the current IS Function.