This study employs Habermas’ discourse ethics in the context of governmental digitalisation. Habermas’ key concepts including communicative action and rational discourse, as well as their interpretation in the field of information systems have inspired authors to adapt and modify Ulrich’s philosophical staircase of ISD in order to develop their own framework that can be used to analyse the discourse on digitalisation of governmental services. The framework is applied to analysis of empirical data which have been collected in the form of focus groups in the context of social services in Finland. In addition to proposing a new framework, this article demonstrates how it can be used in practice. These experiences from using the framework enable evaluating it to reveal both its usability as well as the issues that need to be considered when it is applied as analytical tool.