[jonathanlydall]

Not the person you’re replying to, but I would expect that a near universal answer to this across all kinds of projects (not just software) is effective collaboration and communication between stakeholders and teams.

Despite no shortage of technical talent on large projects they can still often fail, and it’s because building a technically impressive thing doesn’t matter if it doesn’t do what business needs.

So it’s about making sure you’re building the “right” thing that delivers on business’s actual needs, and the only way to find out what those are is through constant and ongoing good communication between technical and business people.

[ozim]

Downside is lots of work business is doing is running around with wheelbarrows and they actively sabotage it when someone wants to build a conveyor belt.

[moregrist]

The flip side of this is that the stakeholder has to actually care enough to invest in collaboration and have enough bandwidth to be able to follow through.

The kind of communication that lets cross-functional projects be effective is time consuming, and competent people tend to be overworked, no matter what part of the business they’re in.

[RHSman2]

I was fishing for that answer. Glad to hear this is the universal answer (not well implemented)