Patterns

Named structural failures from 20 years of programme delivery. Twenty anti-patterns across four categories, mapped to a 48-risk taxonomy.

The same structural failures recur across programmes because they're built into how organisations design governance, allocate power, and operate day-to-day. These patterns name the mechanisms so you can diagnose them before they compound.

Most troubled programmes have two or three active patterns. When they interact, they form failure cascades — compound patterns that amplify each other and narrow the intervention window.

Governance Design

How governance structures are (mis)designed — gaps, conflations, and temporal decay.

Authority Vacuum
When a governance role goes unfilled, the PM absorbs it by default.
6 risks
Incompatible Mandate
Distinct governance roles merged into one position create structural impossibility.
3 risks
Transition Cliff
Governance, knowledge, and commercial authority dissolve at project boundaries.
4 risks
Entropy Ratchet
Temporary workarounds become permanent. The longer a gap persists, the harder it is to fix.
3 risks

Power & Incentives

How power operates outside formal channels and how incentive structures drive behaviour.

Narrative Capture
A party with less formal authority gains control of the project narrative.
8 risks
Incentive Inversion
Rational individual behaviour produces collectively irrational outcomes.
5 risks
Leverage Erosion
The buyer's ability to enforce contract terms degrades over time.
4 risks

Operating Environment

How the organisation's day-to-day systems produce dysfunction regardless of governance design.

Compliance Theatre
Governance artefacts exist but don't govern. The forms are filled, the meetings happen, but no decisions get made.
4 risks
Information Fog
Critical information exists but can't be found, isn't shared, or decays faster than it's captured.
4 risks
Change Sclerosis
Repeated failed change erodes the organisation's capacity to engage with the next one.
3 risks

Procurement & Contract

How procurement processes and contract management create structural failure before delivery begins.

Emerging patterns

Patterns observed in practice but not yet validated across enough engagements for full publication. Listed here for naming stability and diagnostic use.

Governance Design

Mandate Decay
Programme commitment lives in the executive's head, not in governance artefacts. When they leave, it leaves with them.
4 risks · candidate

Operating Environment

Capability Mirage
The project team's actual capability doesn't match what governance assumes. The gap is invisible until delivery pressure reveals it.
1 risks · candidate
Proxy Competence
A resource presents borrowed expertise as their own and doubles down when challenged because admitting uncertainty would expose the dependency.
0 risks · candidate
Training Reflex
The organisation's default response to a structural failure is individual development. The structure that produced the failure remains unchanged.
3 risks · candidate

Procurement & Contract

Acceptance Drift
Milestone payments decouple from formal acceptance testing. Payment becomes the de facto acceptance event.
4 risks · candidate
Specification Gap
Requirements cover what the system should do but omit how it behaves, connects, migrates, and hands over.
4 risks · candidate
Contract-as-Filing
The contract is signed, filed, and never actively managed. Payment runs on purchase orders, not contract terms.
4 risks · candidate
Integration Blind Spot
Integration falls between organisational boundaries during procurement. Nobody owns the gap between them.
1 risks · candidate
Evaluation Theatre
Evaluation criteria look rigorous but are structured so any compliant vendor scores similarly. The decision is made on price or relationship.
1 risks · candidate
Threshold Blindness
Procurement thresholds shape the scope rather than the scope determining the threshold.
1 risks · candidate

Failure cascades

Patterns rarely appear alone. These four cascades describe how patterns interact and amplify each other.

The Vendor Trap
Authority Vacuum + Narrative Capture
PM absorbs commercial authority the role was never designed to carry. The vendor exploits the gap.
The BAU Trap
Transition Cliff + Leverage Erosion
Commercial knowledge walks out at handover. Enforcement mechanisms degrade with every concession.
Terminal Disengagement
Incentive Inversion + Change Sclerosis
Nobody invests because the incentive structure punishes investment. The organisation can't engage with change.
The Governance Spiral
Compliance Theatre + Entropy Ratchet
Theatre becomes the process. Workarounds embed. Each governance cycle adds artefacts but removes control.

Quick assessment

Tick the patterns you recognise in your current programme.

Recognise three or more? That's structural, not situational.

A programme health check identifies which patterns are active and how they interact. 10fifteen — programme governance assessments.