The struggle to end a project
Defining a project
A major step of any GIS project is to define an implementation plan, the roadmap of
how the system will be developed and deployed. A number of technical and political
challenges must be addressed as you define the implementation plan. What will the
scope of the project be? Which users will be considered? How much functionality and
data will be included in the initial release? How big or how small should the project be?
Too big and the project becomes complex and risk increases. Too small and the project
may not be feasible and and thus may not be supported.
In addition, the scope of the project needs to be balanced with how much money and
resources you believe you can ask for. Even if your cost/benefit study shows a fantastic
return on investment, there will be a pain threshold (i.e., dollar level) that the sponsoring
executive will be willing to request in the budget. The wasteland of previous “big bang”
projects has made many executives reluctant to endorse large IS projects.
Once the implementation plan is defined and the baseline established, you are ready to
start staffing the project. You may decide to develop the system using mostly internal
staff and augment your staff with specialized contractors. Or you may decide to contract
out major portions, such as the data conversion or application development, to a
vendor. Or you may hire a single vendor to provide a turnkey solution. Whichever option
you select is fine. The common thread between all of these options that you must
address is that you will need to sign a contract with the vendor.
Services contracts - Fixed price versus T&M
There are two basic types of services contracts—fixed price and time and material
(T&M). Both types of contracts can work well and both can cause you misery. One key
rule to remember is “how you pay people is how you motivate them.”
Generally, fixed price means the vendor will provide a predefined deliverable (e.g., an
application, a set of converted data, etc.) based on a set of specified requirements for a
fixed amount of money within a certain time period. The vendor typically controls how
the work is completed or the exact staff involved. The customer is charged the fixed
amount regardless of whether the vendor spends more or less time to provide the
deliverable.
“Starting with the end in mind” is one of Stephen Covey’s famous sayings. The key to a
successful fixed price contract is to have clearly defined requirements by which the
vendor will estimate the work effort (i.e., price). Fixed price contracts also work best
when there are well defined acceptance criteria. However, some changes to the
requirements can always be expected. These changes are controlled via a change
request approval process. We’ll discuss how change requests can impact ending your
project later in this paper.
T&M contracts are structured for you to pay by the hour or day for individuals provided
by the vendor. Typically, the vendor will provide a list of available staff by skill levels and
related daily cost rates. A general description of the type of work may be provided along
with an estimate or a maximum amount of work effort required. The work of the
contracted staff can be directed either by you or by the vendor. You are charged for only
the hours worked by the vendor.
T&M contracts are most effective when requirements are not clear, and, therefore, the
work effort is difficult to estimate. An example could be the prototyping stage of a
project. You can control when enough prototyping has been done and can stop work at
any time. This contract type is commonly used when you are managing or staffing a
majority of the work. Vendor staff can be hired in a staff augmentation role on a T&M
basis.
