There are numerous signs that the complexity of many mission critical IT systems has reached a breaking point. The culprit is IT complexity. Complexity rises exponentially with increases in IT functionality. This means that even small increases in the functionality of an IT system causes very large changes in the complexity of that IT system. And with IT systems already at the breaking point, these increases in complexity can only have catastrophic results.This crisis can be averted. But only if major changes are made to how IT projects are planned, architected, and implemented. The time for these changes is long past due.