Given the high cost and strategic importance of many information technology (IT) projects, evaluation decisions about the feasibility, relative priority and impact of these projects are important ( Smithson and Hirschheim, 1998 ;Irani et al., 2005 ). However, despite the extensive literature on IT evaluation ( Irani and Love, 2001, 2002 ), organisations appear to be no nearer a solution to meaningful evaluation than they were over a decade ago ( Ballantine and Stray, 1998 ). Longstanding difficulties with evaluating IT projects are also exacerbated by a rapidly changing business environment and a high degree of uncertainty regarding IT project outcomes ( Patel and Irani, 1999 ;Melville et al., 2004 ). The result is that IT projects continue to experience high failure rates ( Lubbe and Remenyi, 1999 ;Love et al., 2005 ).In an effort to gain a better understanding of which IT evaluation methodologies and practices are being used today, their relative effectiveness, and what value they bring, a series of 36 case studies was conducted in three industries in Australia. The research question was as follows:What are the most effective IT project evaluation practices used by organisations in Australia and why do they work?The study concludes that the key to more effective IT evaluation is not more formal and sophisticated methods, but rather, more effective governance structures and leadership behaviours. Six key drivers of effective IT evaluation practices, that lead, in turn, to more efficient use of resources and improved IT project outcomes, are presented and justified.