It's interesting that you use the analogy "can you dig a canal with a tried and true shovel". The attempts at building the Panama Canal [1] were basically just this, and failed. It's a great point though, and on-topic. I think a lot of times large-scale software projects are approached in exactly this way. "Let's just hire a bunch of mid-level developers (shovelers) and get them writing. We can always add more developers." It seems to be the prevailaing attitude with outsourcing as well.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Panama_Canal