Most information systems projects fail. Very little progress has been made to turn the tide. A lack of effective project governance has been suggested as a major reason for project failure. Through an analysis of governance practices in literature from various project management standards, methodologies and guidelines, various project governance practices are identified. A quantitative approach is followed to obtain data from IS project practitioner to descriptively analyse and to perform exploratory factor analysis. The purpose is to determine what governance practice in the project lifecycle are considered important and to what extent these are implemented. The results indicate that here is a fundamental disconnect between the perceived importance of governance practices and the extent of their implementation. In all cases, project governance practices are implemented to a lesser extent than the importance attached to them. Underlying structures revealed there are some overlapping factors between the desired state of project governance and current state. These overlaps indicate that certain governance practices be enhanced. Practices currently implemented that are not considered as important are identified to be maintained. Practices considered to be part of the desired state but that do not form part of the current state are to be prioritised to be implemented. This provides the basis for establishing a framework for the governance of IS projects.