Vendor contract services: a primer
Strata Rose Chalup · ;login:: the magazine of USENIX & SAGE · 2000
I�d like to talk about the logistics of coordinating large-scale service buildouts when you have several independent vendor teams and subcontractors working on a project. More and more of the �architecture� work I do is devolving into 30% architecture, 50% project management, and 20% keeping the finger-pointing and name-calling between vendor teams at a minimum. I know that I�m not the only one in this situation, and I�d like to share some of the things I have learned along the way. I have been both an employee and a contractor for clients, and a subcontractor for a vendor team. I�ve managed projects involving vendor teams, managed vendor teams for a client, and managed vendor teams for the vendor. In other words, I have toured the sausage factory from most conceivable viewpoints, including that of the sausage. I won�t say that I will never eat another sausage, but I will say that �managed eating� is a Very Good Thing when it comes to sausage. I will also say that while there are few �right answers,� some of the more correct answers from a client side run headlong into best practices from a vendor side, and viceversa. You may be frustrated at the lack of a clear recommendation as to the best course of action, as am I. The best that one can do in this situation is to illuminate some of the issues and tradeoffs, and allow each person to make the choices that seem best for their situation.