Strategic Capabilities for Megaproject Architects: Sequencing Network Growth and Bottleneck Removal

This study discusses strategic capabilities necessary to improve the performance of the promoters of new developments of large infrastructure so-called megaprojects. To get to the end goal, promoters must assemble vast networks of resource-rich, autonomous actors and share with them direct control over high-level design decisions for indivisible components. Hence promoters are ‘system-architects’, and they need architectural knowledge both of the stakeholder landscape and technical design to carry on their task structure. Promoters that act strategically, we argue, deliberately manipulate the sequence of arrival of the actors and keep a selected few at bay. An ideal sequence aligns the growth of the network with the hierarchy of design choices and creates cohesive groups to strike consensuses on local solutions. We discuss pitfalls ahead of attempts to orderly eliminate development bottlenecks and thus stabilise performance expectations, a prerequisite to sustain public legitimacy for the scheme.