Make the seams somebody's job.
Every vendor delivers its own scope on time and the programme still slips, because nobody's contract covers the space between them. We make those spaces explicit and attach each one to a person.
Book a callSounds familiar
Every workstream reported green last month. The programme is four months late.
Each vendor delivered exactly what was in their contract. It still doesn't work together.
The steering committee meets monthly and decides nothing anyone can act on.
What's actually going on
A steering committee is a structure in which everyone is responsible and nobody is accountable. That isn't an accident — it's what the structure is for. It spreads risk across enough senior people that no single one carries a failure. The cost is that no single one can prevent one either.
Vendors then behave rationally. Each optimises the scope it's paid for and leaves the seams alone, because the seams belong to nobody. Most programme rescues aren't a planning problem. They turn on who is allowed to make a decision that costs one vendor money.
What we do
Map the seams: every handover, interface, shared assumption
Put a name on each one. A person, not a workstream.
Establish who may make a decision that costs a vendor money
Sequence so workstreams can ship without waiting on each other
Replace green status reporting with something that can carry bad news
What this isn't
No PMO. No extra reporting layer.
Governance that only holds while everything is on time isn't governance.
In your systems
A vendor boundary is only as real as the interface behind it. Contract tests, environments, who may deploy what — leave that unspecified and "clear responsibilities" is a slide. The seam reopens at integration.
What you end up holding
Workstreams that ship independently
Vendors delivering against clear interfaces
Bad news arriving early enough to act on
Related
Who you'd work on this with
Robert Vogt
Reads a vendor boundary the way it is built — environments, tests, who may deploy.
robert@unmade.ch
Jeremy Zahner
Puts a name on every seam, and sits through the meeting where that gets uncomfortable.
jeremy@unmade.ch