Today is the 394th anniversary of the original sin of technology projects. The Swedish King sent out an RFP for a huge warship, and a private contractor was selected to build it. But on second thought, the King wanted the most powerful warship in the world. So he required another deck of cannons to be added. A conscientious engineer would have refused, telling the King that this would make the vessel too top-heavy. But just like a modern contractor, the private shipbuilders accepted the questionable change request and charged extra.
On its maiden voyage, the ship heeled over and sank just off the pier in front of thousands of spectators. Just like in modern IT disasters, a commission investigated, and in the end, nobody was punished.
In every failed technology project, dozens or hundreds of people know it will fail many months or even years before the failure becomes obvious. What are your processes to ensure that you are not building a modern version of the good ship Vasa?
(image by Jorge Lascar/Flickr used under CC BY 2.0)