An organization is planning an IT acquisition strategy for a large and complex project. It plans to outsource part of the solution implementation to an IT services contractor. Prior to preparing a request for proposals, it must decide which solution implementation activities should be performed by in-house staff and which should be performed by the IT service contractor.
Your Question/Task:What guidelines would you recommend for making the decisions regarding which solution implementation activities should be performed by in-house staff and which should be performed by the IT service contractor?
An IT services contractor generally tries to appoint the project manager that is best suited to the customer and the project. In the case described below, the contractor appointed one of its best project managers to manage a project under contract with an important client. Here is the problem that the project manager encountered:
The Case.An organization awarded a time and materials contract to a qualified IT services contractor to develop software for analyzing large amounts of customer data and establishing tailored reporting of the results for managers of lines of business. The project required 40 full-time analysts, designers, and programmers. Because of the importance of the project to both the customer and the contractor, the contractor assigned a senior project manager who was known for having excellent technical skills and excellent soft skills. After the project was under way for several months, the project manager discovered that two team members had charged time to the project for several three-to five day periods in which they did not work on the project. The customer had no knowledge of this and counted the time in calculating the payments to the contractor.
Your Question/Task:Given the circumstances of this case, what action should the project manager take? Explain the reason(s) for your answer.