Abstract
Most information systems projects fail. Very little progress hasbeen made to turn the tide. A lack of effective project governance has beensuggested as a major reason for project failure. Through an analysis ofgovernance practices in literature from various project managementstandards, methodologies and guidelines, various project governancepractices are identified. A quantitative approach is followed to obtain datafrom IS project practitioners to descriptively analyse and perform exploratoryfactor analysis. The purpose is to determine what governance practices inthe project lifecycle are considered important and to what extent these areimplemented. The results indicate that here is a fundamental disconnectbetween the perceived importance of governance practices and the extent oftheir implementation. In all cases, project governance practices areimplemented to a lesser extent than the importance attached to them.Underlying structures revealed there are some overlapping factors betweenthe desired state of project governance and current state. These overlapsindicate that certain governance practices be enhanced. Practices currentlyimplemented that are not considered as important are identified to bemaintained. Practices considered to be part of the desired state but that donot form part of the current state are to be prioritised to be implemented.This provides the basis for establishing a framework for the governance of ISprojects.