How we detected a material breach in a $1M Grid Modernization project and recovered $170,000 in 10 days.
A major energy utility was integrating ServiceNow with a legacy ChangeGear system to meet federal NERC CIP compliance.
"Connectivity established. Evaluating authentication protocols to optimize performance. On track for June 1st Go-Live."
This was the lie being told to the Board.
| Feature | The Lie (Status Report) | The Reality (Vendor Email) |
|---|---|---|
| Status | GREEN | CRITICAL FAILURE |
| Narrative | "Evaluating protocols to optimize performance." | "The current version... definitely does NOT support the OAuth 2.0 handshake." |
| Intent | To imply progress is being made. | To hide the failure until it is too late to cancel. |
The vendor knowingly committed a Material Breach. By using the word "Optimizing," the PM denied the Steering Committee the executive right to intervene, resulting in 6 weeks of Zombie Spend.
We don't manage by feelings. We manage by physics.
Wasted OpEx during the 6-week "Silence Signal."
Total destruction of shareholder value (at 10x Multiple).
I wish I had a Michael on every one of my projects. Whenever we hit a major blocker, he immediately understood the problem and drove us to a solution within days.— Nate White, Program Sponsor, Ameren
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