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The Effectiveness of Project Governance: A Comparative Case-Study

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Date

2013

Authors

Supervisor

Cusack, Brian

Item type

Thesis

Degree name

Master of Computer and Information Sciences

Journal Title

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Volume Title

Publisher

Auckland University of Technology

Abstract

Project governance (PG) refers to the rules and regulations under which an Information Communication Technology (ICT) project is managed. PG is an extension to the notion of Information Technology Governance (ITG) which ensures that the business and ICT strategy are aligned. PG ensures that the quality of the project is measured and followed in a controlled fashion. PG is implemented by applying three core mechanisms: structures, processes, and people. Existing research studies indicated that organisations with effective PG increase their earnings by at least twenty per cent as compared to organisation with no governance support. Researchers of ICT projects failures are of the opinion that proper structure, process and people are the biggest contributor to project success. This research study aims to enhance the understanding of top management and PG research by considering the question “What can the top management do in order to take up the PG framework to govern ICT projects”? The research identifies the factors that influence PG adoption by top management for governing ICT projects. The research first investigates how organisations implement PG and then investigates how these factors emerge and their relationship with PG. As a result, best practices for PG can be developed based on the identified factors. This study utilises a qualitative model where an exploratory research through multiple case studies has been carried out on two New Zealand companies and two companies in Malaysia. The study considers the views of top management and other personnel who are familiar with the PG implementation and provides insights into how can top management improve PG to govern ICT projects. Qualitative data is collected from multiple sources, including documentation, diary recording and unstructured interviews. The research identifies a number of significant factors some of which are similar to the ones reported in previous studies and therefore, validates those findings. The study also identifies five new factors that could affect PG and project success. Further inquiry can be conducted to explore these five new factors affecting PG implementation in organisations. Further research on the case studies presented in this research can also be conducted to validate the interpretations. Further analysis can also be conducted with a follow up survey on the same organisations to determine if the improvements to their project governance have had a positive impact on the ICT projects that have been developed since the change of PG development and implementation.

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Keywords

Project Governance, Enterprise Governance, Corporate Governance, Project Management

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Permanent link

https://hdl.handle.net/10292/6001

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Masters Theses