The state of IT governance in the Top 20 IT spending companies in South Africa

Abstract

Over the past years, IT governance has become a key focus area for IT stakeholders around the world, especially in companies with high IT spend. IT governance is about making choices about the IT spend. It uses a set of management practices by which business and IT management together determine the level of IT investment, decide where to invest IT resources, track IT performance, and establish the strategies and principles on which IT is managed. The aim of this study was to assess the status of IT governance in the Top 20 IT spending companies in South Africa. This descriptive study examines how IT governance is being implemented through number of IT governance practices and assesses the maturity levels of IT governance in the Top 20 IT spending companies. The paper also focused on how internationally recognized standards such as COBIT and ITIL are being utilised. The study revealed the number of findings with regards to the state of IT governance based on secondary objectives, which were to understand the levels of IT maturity in the top 20 IT spending companies, the drivers of IT governance and the implementation of IT governance practice.