Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
5.2 Relationship Between the Contract Partners
Obviously different partners stand for different interests. The supplier
s objective is
to deliver his order in time and obtain acceptance with a view to receive a timely
payment and a minimum of warranty commitments. The business units would like
to get the functions requested, whereby the expectations between supplier and
business may diverge. In some cases the end user recognises only after realisation,
what had really been on his mind, but had then been specified in a way that the
supplier may have misinterpreted the functional specifications. These conflicts have
to be resolved during acceptance tests. Professional technical know how and
management competences of the project leadership will prove to be decisive
factors.
The customer
'
s IT organisation has to deal with follow up activities after
acceptance such as putting the system into operation and support the production
by a service centre. It is therefore important to make sure that there is mutual
agreement between business units and IT on these matters regarding the necessary
service mentality. Similar considerations concern the roles of the sub-projects
request management, change management, security and others, which quite often
tend to hide behind administrative rules governing their work.
Project management has to make sure that all participants manoeuvre towards a
common goal. In the end the objective is the same for all: mutual satisfaction. For
this reason it will be inevitable that during the acceptance process compromises and
accommodations will be required from all sides. This goes well beyond the limits of
any formal agreement.
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5.3 Finding Consensus
The directive should be written by acceptance coordination, i.e. drafted by the
customer
s quality management. As will be shown further on, all basic aspects but
also many operational details are to be documented. Subsequently the document
should undergo a clearing process, the history of which is to be recorded. It should
be released under the participation of at least one representative of the supplier—in
certain circumstances also by department heads of the customer. It serves as a
reference for the overall project management and is the working basis for the
sub-project management.
Thus its creation follows an iterative process. The result can be archived together
with the rest of contract documents.
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