This work aims to identify the shortcomings that may impair or endanger the viability of software
projects, and attemps to reduce their failure rates. A diagnosis based on the Viable System Model
of software projects is shown. The data collection processes necessary to make a diagnosis have
been carried out through a questionnaire and personal interviews with 38 companies in the
Information and Communications Technology (ICT) sector. The subsequent descriptive analysis
allows us to detect 8 weak points in the organizational structure of the software projects. We
highlight two of the 8 weak points in particular: the nondefinition of the next lower level of
recursion and the need to improve the exploration mechanisms used to evaluate future scenarios.
Although the sample seems small, a great effort was expended to interview the 38 companies due
to an extension of the interview time (approximately 75 min) and the confidentiality and
complexity of the topic, which required gathering a high level of detail and in-depth information
on each of the projects and companies in the survey. This work offers managers a detailed
reference for the diagnosis or design of viable software projects. The novel aspect of the work
focuses on the application of the Viable System Model for proposing organizational changes in
the development of software projects. This holistic perspective of the organizational structure of
software projects will allow an increase in their success rate.
