Why most engineering strategies fail before execution—and what constraints reveal that ambition hides
Most engineering strategies fail before execution begins. Not because they lack ambition. Because they ignore constraints.
Strategy is often presented as intent. What the company wants to build. What markets it wants to enter. What capabilities it wants to develop.
It reads cleanly. It aligns stakeholders. It signals direction. It is also frequently detached from the system expected to deliver it.
Engineering capacity is treated as elastic. Architecture is assumed to adapt. Dependencies are acknowledged but not accounted for. Existing commitments are quietly set aside.
The plan holds—until work begins. Then the system asserts itself.
https://primamachina.substack.com/p/strategy-without-constraints-is-fiction