The Parts Pass. The System Still Won't Power On.

I have an electrical engineering degree. I haven't touched a circuit board in years, but one thing from those old lab benches stuck: every component can pass its own test—resistor's fine, capacitor's fine, chip's fine—and the assembled board still won't power on.

PMI just measured the same failure pattern in complex projects.

31% of complex projects now fail to deliver their intended benefits. Two years ago that number was 12%. Not a slight shift—more than double.

While 97% of project professionals managed a complex project this past year, structured frameworks do help: 72% success versus 61% without one. But that gap didn't close; it doubled anyway.

Green Workstreams, Failing Systems

I've sat in status meetings where every individual workstream is green. Milestones hit. Risk registers updated. Charters clean.

Then three teams each make a reasonable call in isolation, and six weeks later those calls collide downstream and nobody can point to which decision caused it.

The parts pass their tests. The system still won't power on.

Governance built to check components one at a time will keep signing off on green statuses while the thing underneath quietly doesn't work.

When's the last time your PMO reviewed how workstreams interact—not just how each one is doing on its own?