Do-or-die software projects in Norway during the COVID-19 pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic necessitated urgent solutions to support governmental programs that were critical to mitigating unacceptable economic, social, and health risks. We conducted a multiple case study, confirmation workshop, and survey of Norwegian public institutions that had defied conventional wisdom about public sector inertia by successfully completing important, urgent, and unexpected development efforts (do-or-die projects). We found consistent patterns credited for their accomplishments, summarized as follows: (1) antecedent capabilities for collaboration, use of expertise, and interdisciplinary problem-solving; (2) characteristics of the project mandates including specificity of goals, importance, deadlines, and tie-in with societal mission; (3) emergent development practices that empowered a core team to make decisions, benefit from organizational support, and integrate effectively with diverse stakeholders; and (4) outcomes that reinforced the practices, such as success, pride in work, transparency, and continuous capability development. We examined our findings through the theoretical lenses of complexity leadership and goal-setting and found support for the relevance of do-or-die projects in both non-urgent and urgent contexts. The findings contribute to understanding how the public sector can perform under pressure by mobilizing latent capabilities and responding with flexibility and focus. Implications are outlined for diverse fields of agile practices and principles, organizational resilience, public sector interaction, complexity leadership, goal-setting, and project studies. Our study suggests that successful do-or-die projects result from a combination of contextual alignment, clear mandates, and empowered execution — offering insight into how such performance may be fostered in and beyond crises.

Editor’s note: Open Science material was validated by the Journal of Systems and Software Open Science Board.