An investigation into the governance of information technology projects in South Africa

Information technology (IT) projects are often perceived as adding little or no organisational value despite substantial investments being made. The non-adoption of governance principles might contribute to this perception as unfeasible projects are often approved and initiated without proper discourse. To test this statement, 16 semi-structured interviews were conducted to understand current practice. This article reports on the investigation of IT projects in South African organisations to determine whether generally accepted governance principles were applied in the project domain. The main trend that emerged as a result of the investigation is that adherence to governance principles is a myth and that it does not guide decision-making for IT projects. Using the findings of the investigation, a conclusion is drawn that the majority of the organisations do have corporate governance in place but that they do not comply with IT and IT project governance.