The problems with "large, complex projects" in the enterprise

What is a "large, complex project"?

When someone says "large and complex" in an enterprise context, they're typically referring to a few attributes:

• Multiple teams
• Multiple components, including non-IT components
• Multiple vendors
• Distributed teams
• Year plus timelines

These attributes lead to several problems...

"Large, complex projects" suffer from two particular problems

1. Lack of alignment

It is much more difficult to create and maintain aligned intent, which means it's more difficult to coordinate efforts to achieve any overall target outcome.

This becomes worse with some multi-year programs as the sheer length of time tends to lead to a lack of continuity of leadership and management.

2. Overconfidence

Novices in "large, complex projects" tend to be overconfident in the predictability of humans, technology and context, that is, in the comprehensibility of both the problem and solution.

This overconfidence leads to a specific questionable belief: If it works on paper, then it must work in practice, that is, documents are a reliable form of control.

This belief leads to a critical failure pattern with  "large, complex projects": Waiting until late in the life cycle to test the integration of systems, humans, and processes.

I see the overconfidence as partly coming from an assumption that they're dealing with a technical problem rather than a socio-technical problem (multiple teams, vendors, sites, business processes, etc.).

Another way of describing this is considering the difference between a "bicycle system" and a "frog system".  With a bicycle, if we break everything down into pieces, it can be assembled into a working result in a predictable manner.  We can't do the same with a frog.  "Large, complex" projects in the enterprise, with the multiple teams, vendors, sites, non-IT components, etc. are more like frogs than bicycles.

Next: Solutions for "large, complex projects" in the enterprise that don't work

Frog picture from https://flic.kr/p/coAoWb