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.

Enforcing EoL recovery strategies is critical to shifting the paradigm from a linear to a circular economy that enables future growth. This study identifies relevant evaluation indicators for End of-life recovery strategies in the Outdoor Power Equipment industry, as well as the drivers and barriers to implementation of End-of-life recovery strategies. Furthermore, it contributes to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals 8 and 12 and serves as a starting point for increasing product circularity in the Outdoor Power Equipment industry through End-of-life recovery strategies. For this purpose, a structured literature review and an exploratory case study was conducted in collaboration with the market leader, Husqvarna Group. The results showed the relevant evaluation indicators selected by the case company, addressing the three sustainability dimensions. From an organizational perspective, this study emphasizes the role of different factors acting as drivers and barriers to EoL recovery strategy implementation for industry to drive a successful implementation. / Att genomdriva cirkulära produktstrategier är avgörande för omställningen till cirkulär ekonomi, vilket möjliggör framtida ekonomisk tillväxt. Den här studien identifierar relevanta utvärderingsindikatorer för cirkulära produktstrategier inom tillverkningsindustrin, samt drivkrafter och barriärer för genomförande av dessa. Studien bidrar till Förenade Nationerna Globala Mål för Hållbar Utveckling 8 och 12 och fungerar som en utgångspunkt för att öka livslängden för produkter och komponenter inom industrin. För detta genomfördes en explorativ fallstudie genom en strukturerad litteraturgenomgång, workshops och intervjuer i samarbete med marknadsledaren Husqvarna Group. Resultaten visade att relevanta utvärderings indikatorer är klimatpåverkan, kundnöjdhet och intäktspotential, som tar upp de tre hållbarhetsdimensionerna. Från ett organisatoriskt perspektiv betonar denna studie barriärer mellan affärsutveckling och organisation, vilket hotar framgångsrik implementering. För att driva en framgångsrik implementering, är anpassat resultatmål, utbildning och ökad teknisk kapacitet sätt att övervinna den nuvarande verkligheten.