The impact of ineffective ITG on IT deployment: a study of failed IT deployment initiatives

Organisations continue to make significant investments in Information Technology (IT) to enable business. To ensure a return on investment in IT, there is a need for a wider accountability focus on strategic technology initiatives alongside a structured and evaluative approach to the effective governance of IT. Throughout the last decade, systems, processes, standards and best practice frameworks have been developed to facilitate effective IT governance. However, IT deployment initiatives seem to continue to fail to deliver outcomes. This paper examines the impact of ineffective IT governance (ITG) on IT deployment failure in a set of failed IT projects. First, a literature review establishes the influencers (and indicators) of effective ITG. Next, a multiple case study analysis of failed IT deployment initiatives identifies key contributors to deployment failure. Finally, the outcome of the case study analysis is mapped back to the indicators of effective ITG derived from the literature review to determine a possible connection between failed IT deployment and ineffective IT governance. The outcome of the analysis demonstrates a connection between project failures and lack of effective ITG.