Why technical programs fail

Built the wrong thing. Too late to fix.

You build the wrong thing and don’t find out until it’s too late to do anything about it. For a program, “you” can be any of the teams involved.

Built the wrong thing but it’s too late to do anything about it

Won’t finish in time. Too late to do anything.

You realise you can’t finish in time and don’t find out until it’s too late to do anything about it. For a program, “you” can be any of the teams involved.

Realised you won’t finish in time but it’s too late to do anything about it

Integration hell

You build components separately in parallel and when you attempt to integrate, it all breaks and takes forever to fix (aka “Integration Hell”).

Integration Hell

Overwhelming tech debt

Tech debt accumulates to the point that you can’t change anything without breaking something else and progress grinds to a halt.

Tech debt accumulates to the point that progress grinds to a halt