Variables clave en la gestión estratégica de un modelo de interoperabilidad: ¿Decisiones políticas o cooptación tecnológica?

Although the concept of interoperability is not completely new in the public sector, lately, it has become more important. More and more, the classic organizational structure of public administrations has proved to be unable to respond to the emergence of new citizen demands that cannot be addressed by only one organization. As a result, growingly, public administrations are considering the need to work transversely and cooperatively with other public institutions, but also with other agents, with regard to common goals that will improve both political and administrative processes and results. However, despite its important benefits and advantages, technological cooperation is not easy. Often, interoperability initiatives have to address important challenges which are technological but also organizational, legal, or cultural. Given this context, this work aims at presenting the first results of the research "Managing e-govemment interoperability in the Catalan public administrations", funded by the Catalan School of Public Administration. The general goal of this study is to identify and analyze those key variables in the implementation of interoperability projects within Catalan public administrations in order to contribute to the development of the conceptual and theoretical field of egovernment, on one hand, and to identify good practices that could be useful to decision makers, on the other. This article addresses two issues: 1) the literature review conducted, which puts emphasis on the meaning of interoperability but, also, on the different approaches that have been used to study it, and 2) the holistic model proposed by the research team, one that has been built under the public management perspective.