How an Airport Mistook 180 IT Project Completions for Enterprise Architecture
- Sunil Dutt Jha
- Jul 31
- 5 min read
Part of the Airports Enterprise Anatomy Diagnostic Series
1. How This Pattern Emerged
Over the last three years, ICMG has reviewed transformation portfolios inside major international airports — across hubs in Dubai, Delhi, Singapore, Frankfurt, and Atlanta.
These airports executed programs in passenger flow management, baggage handling, security, retail concessions, ground operations, cargo, and IT modernization. Some managed 200–300 concurrent projects with multiple vendors and SI partners.
But across every review, one pattern repeated:
Projects were delivered. Systems were modernized. But the airport itself was never modeled structurally.
2. What They Claimed Was Delivered
In a year-end review, the Airport CIO proudly reported:
We’ve delivered 180+ projects this year — including biometric boarding, baggage automation, passenger apps, revamped concession management, and a new Airport Operations Control System (AOCS).
The dashboards highlighted:
Agile delivery metrics
Vendor compliance charts
Passenger app adoption numbers
Baggage automation SLAs
Regulatory audit milestones
The COO echoed:
“All programs are on time, reuse is maximized. Architecture compliance at 95%.”
But the Airport Board Chair asked a quiet question:
“Across these 200 projects, what part of our airport structure has actually changed?”
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