Having difficulty with outsourcing and contract/project management?
Many Information System (IS) initiatives have failed due to faulty decisions on outsourcing, and poor contract management. Outsourcing generally flows from an analysis or decision regarding the inability to design the system in-house. Outsourcing the whole system or a major piece of the system will violate the axiom that the bigger and bolder the project the higher the probability of failure. Such systems either purport to be ‘turnkey’ systems, or have to be designed from the ground up. The former have usually been designed with another organization in mind with different organizational structures, goals and objectives. The latter contains few checks and balances, and are notorious for over-runs. Furthermore, by the time problems become apparent, considerable expense can be incurred.
To avoid these problems of size and control, clients should take an incremental or modular approach, building the system piece by piece. Another option is to purchase modular, off-the-shelf software. While this has the advantage of being proven, it rarely meets the precise needs, goals and objectives of the customer. Rather than just adopt off-the shelf software, therefore, the customer has the power to require the vendor to customize the software to meet the needs of the client i.e. to adapt the software. The modular or incremental approach allows the client to contract for customized software. The relatively small size of each module, and the desire of the vendor to win further modules, provides the client with minimal risk. |
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