Digital governance in support of infrastructure asset management

Evidence-based strategic infrastructure asset management decision making requires quality harmonised asset information from IT and control systems. There are problems related to the continuous collection and transformation of asset data from different digital systems, into useful and reliable evidence for decision making purposes. Rand Water, the base case, is the largest water utility in Africa. The problems referred to above are prevalent at Rand Water, as well as at other infrastructure asset intensive organisations from different industries. A new digital governance approach is required to enable enterprise-wide asset information management, in support of effective strategic infrastructure asset decision making. The new digital governance approach also needs to be implemented in a sustainable manner at large complex heterogeneous infrastructure asset intensive organisations. This research uses a design science research philosophy that is effectuated with the inductive-hypothetic research strategy. The researcher is a reflective practitioner. The artefact of the research is the Rand Water Way. It is a unique artefact that addresses a gap in literature. The Rand Water Way goes beyond IT governance and compliance. It provides a balanced risk-based integrated enterprise-wide digital governance approach that adequately mitigates the related digital risks. It also provides an approach to successfully implement the new way of digital governance at infrastructure asset intensive organisations. The Rand Water Way was instantiated and accepted at Rand Water, in terms of its perceived usefulness and usability. It was also accepted, in terms of its potential perceived usefulness and usability, by similar organisations from various industries. The research contributes to theory and knowledge increase, related to the fields of information management and digital governance, as applied at infrastructure asset intensive organisations.