In the last project phase, the researchers sought to include additional documents that were substantively about the DIA project and to apply the hermeneutic principle of adding new knowledge into an existing system of understanding that has already been developed, and using Myers notion of continuing to make sense (1994a, p. 191), to either confirm understanding, or to extend the understanding to accommodate the new knowledge.

The new text document was by Montealegre, titled ‘De-escalating Information Technology Projects: Lessons from the Denver International Airport’ (Montealegre and Keil, 2000). The goal in the introduction of this new document was to determine if there was any new knowledge about the DIA project that had not been previously revealed, and whether this knowledge maintained consistency with the understanding built to date.

The focus of the document was to analyse the project failure from the standpoint of de-escalation. The first new piece of knowledge was the fact that several government agencies (Federal Grand Jury, SEC, Government Accounting Office and the Federal Aviation Administration) had started or requested investigations into the project (Montealegre and Keil, 2000, p. 424). There was, however, no inkling of government dissatisfaction in the original case study.

This new fact caused us to reassess our understanding about the amount of public concern that existed during the latter days of the project. In particular, it made us aware that there must have been considerable pressure brought to bear on the management of the project. The consequences of this pressure could have been to panic, or take some other course of action. The original document describes the Webb administration bringing in external consultants to look at the baggage handling system in an almost ‘matter-of-fact’ way. There was no indication of weight of pressure present at the time.

The second new piece of knowledge that emerged from the document was that Moody’s, the credit rating agency, reduced the DIA bonds to level BAA, just one level short of ‘no-investment status’. This added pressure of dried up funds sources again served to add the words ‘crisis’ and ‘panic’ to the prevailing atmosphere.

The third new addition was that Mayor Webb established a task force to look at alternatives that could be deployed with the express purpose of opening the airport as quickly as possible. There was no mention of this task force in the case study, even though it preceded the report tabled by the LogPlan company. This was truly the first piece of evidence of high level flexibility being brought to bear on the problem – if a problem becomes intractable, try to get around it.

The new horizons added by this further knowledge provided a relief to the tension that developed around what appeared at first sight to be an inflexible administration and management.