Trabalho de História

...

(pp.665). They have worked in their organizations for average duration of 7 year and have occupied high ranked positions in their organization such as CIOs or portfolio managers.

In short the results of the interview revealed that

• Many organizations in South Africa comply with corporate governance such King 2/3, SOX or Basel II. In terms of IT Governance requirements such as COBIT, the study has shown that very few organizations do comply with IT governance requirement. This was because these principles were not mandatory by legislation as Basel for financial organizations.

• In relation to how project governance was practiced within the context of corporate and IT governance. The study showed that many organizations use the structures of steering committees in the absence of formal guidelines. At project level, many organizations have project-related steering committees (composing of project owner and the major stakeholders) responsible for execution of the project. This committee reports to executive committee (composed of CIO of various business units within the organization) which guides on the strategic alignment and prioritization of projects within the organization. The executive committee reports to the organization board. The board is a top-level in an organization which oversees the overall direction the organization. While it was revealed that steering committee meets once per month, project steering committees met twice or once per month. The relations between various steering committees based on the study is shown in the figure 2 below (pp.668)

Fig. 2. Relationship between organisational committees.

Conclusions

IT has been the key factor in enhancing organization performance, increasing competitive advantage and improves processes within the organizations. As a result IT is a major investment cost comprising nearly half of many organization budgets. Unfortunately IT projects in many organizations encounter a lot of problems including unintended project deliverables, over or under budgets and takes long time to complete.

The study revealed variations in terms how projects are managed in different organization, but the general trend indicates that many organizations in South Africa have adopted the steering committee approach. The executions of the project is done at the project steering committee level, the quality assurance and monitoring is conducted by project management committees but in other organizations, is conducted by executive committees.

Although there are formal principles for both cooperate governance and IT governance, it was revealed that most of South Africa organizations do not comply with IT governance requirements such as COBIT. Many organizations tend to comply with principles if they are mandatory by legislation. It is very important of these organizations to adhere to these requirements in order to improve the quality of the IT-related investments and therefore enhance profits.

Joel S. Mtebe