DM p10-11 Opinion - IT Gov Feb09.qxp 29/01/2009 13:58 Page 11
Opinion
most senior management. Two were Chief might be infecting project governance.
Technology Officer/CIO or equivalent, one was a Our findings support previous studies which sug-
Director of IT Transformation, and one managed rela- gest that successful implementations of IT gover-
tionships with internal stakeholder, one with suppli- nance depends on senior management involvement
ers, while the rest had more specialist roles. Some had (and constancy) and good project management abili-
been in IT for many years, while others were relative- ty. However, project management, project governance
ly new to the discipline. Most had been extensively and IT governance are not the same thing, and it is
trained – some at university level – in project man- possible to have strong project management and
agement, while others were involved in project man- weak project (and indeed IT) governance. Our find-
agement through another role. ings also supported the idea that changing how proj-
Our research showed that most companies who ects are governed, played a significant role in deliver-
responded had strong project management approach- ing success. This seems a better approach than relying
es and strong, well-qualified project managers, for the on accidental success. Whether this works or is advis-
major projects which were the subject of the enquiry, able depends on the stage at which this was done.
and that respondents perceived that these two factors In our view, the findings show that governance
were very important in ensuring successful project sometimes needs to be challenged and “shaken-up”,
delivery and in the successful governance of projects. particularly in large organisations with large customer
In some cases, the project management approach had databases. It may require investment and work to
been long established, in others it had been estab- ensure senior management commitment, as well as
lished as a result of the efforts of the individual an injection of governance skills and possibly even
respondent. articulation or re-articulation of governance culture.
The project management and governance methods Governance should also address IT strategy alignment
used by the respondents’ companies helped them to and return on investment as well as project comple-
cope with the most of the vagaries of their IT proj- tion.
n
ects. However, a few problem areas stood out, such as
coping with senior management churn and ensuring Dev Sharma is a Practice Leader at WCL.
that consultants and other suppliers were managed Professor Merlin Stone is research director at
appropriately. These are two prime problem areas in WCL. Dr Yuksel Ekinci is a reader in market-
project governance and IT governance, so the find- ing at the Business School at Oxford Brookes
ings hint at a general weakness in IT governance that University.
www.dmarket.co.uk Database Marketing February 2009 11
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