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The illusion of uniqueness in IT projects
Senior executives and project managers believe that their initiatives are one of a kind—so unique that they cannot benefit from past experiences or industry best practices. This belief, known as "uniqueness bias," leads to underestimating risks, overpromising results, and making costly mistakes.
A recent study published in Harvard Business Review examined over 1,300 IT projects and found that projects perceived as highly unique were far more likely to experience budget overruns and delays. The key takeaway? Most IT projects are not as unique as they seem, and failure to recognise this leads to poor decision-making.
For medium-sized enterprises, strong IT governance is the antidote to the uniqueness trap. A structured governance approach ensures that IT investments align with business goals, learning from past projects, managing risks, and optimising resource use.
IT governance is essential to overcoming uniqueness bias
One of the core principles of IT governance is ensuring IT initiatives align with business objectives and leveraging industry best practices.
Often people believe "our project is different", leading to reinventing the wheel rather than adopting proven solutions. This results in missed opportunities to reduce costs, improve efficiency, and manage risks.
IT governance frameworks encourage benchmarking projects against industry standards. They require organisations to review similar IT initiatives before starting new projects. Governance ensures that decision-makers have access to relevant data, lessons learned, and best practices from past implementations.
Risk management to prevent costly failures
Effective IT governance ensures that all technology investments undergo thorough risk assessments before execution.
Projects perceived as unique often fail to consider potential budget overruns, security risks, or technical challenges. In the HBR study, a one-point increase in perceived uniqueness led to a 5% increase in cost overruns, with extreme cases exceeding 75% over budget.
Standardised risk assessments prevent executives from making overly optimistic assumptions. IT governance promotes reference class forecasting, where organisations compare their projects with past similar initiatives to get realistic cost and risk estimates. Decision-makers use structured approval processes to validate feasibility before committing resources.
Project oversight: Managing complexity & avoiding scope creep
Governance structures help organisations identify hidden similarities between projects and establish repeatable processes for IT management.
Unstructured IT projects often suffer from scope creep, delays, and unclear responsibilities. Complexity is mistaken for uniqueness, leading to custom-built solutions where standardised options would suffice.
Governance frameworks help break down IT projects into modular components, making it easier to compare, track, and manage progress. IT governance promotes similarity-based forecasting, using data from previous projects to predict realistic timelines and outcomes. Structured governance ensures that decision-makers remain accountable and adhere to pre-approved scope, preventing costly changes.
Performance measurement: Ensuring accountability & continuous improvement
One of the most critical functions of IT governance is establishing clear KPIs and monitoring performance.
Many IT projects are launched without clear success criteria or post-implementation reviews. When projects fail, the same mistakes are repeated due to a lack of governance oversight.
IT governance mandates regular performance reviews to measure project outcomes against expectations. Organisations conduct premortems—where teams assume the project has failed in advance and identify potential reasons—to avoid blind spots before starting. Specific techniques such as noise audits ensure that decision-making is not influenced by biases, politics, or irrelevant factors.
How to get started: Assess your IT governance maturity
The first step toward stronger IT governance is understanding where your organisation stands today.
To help business leaders assess their current IT governance practices, you can book a free consultation today!
IT governance is your best defence against project failure
The "uniqueness trap" is a dangerous mindset that leads to unrealistic IT budgets, underestimated risks, and project failures. However, with strong IT governance, organisations can:
Make data-driven decisions rather than relying on gut instincts.
Prevent budget overruns by applying lessons from past projects.
Align IT investments with business strategy for maximum impact.
By taking a structured approach to IT governance, medium-sized enterprises can avoid the pitfalls of perceived uniqueness and turn IT into a driver of growth and efficiency.
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