Submitted by mfprysl on
in
Forums
I've been managing various IT projects for 10 years. What I found is that all the gains from hiring an experienced outside company with their talented and skilled crew over hiring and training your own green programmers team is killed by communication problems.
I am curious what are the experiences of other MT listeners. Maybe it's the kind of projects I've managed but the pattern is surprisingly strong and prevailant with various partners and various internal teams:
1. We meet with the other company to discuss details
2. After a couple of days they have an internal meeting discussing our input and they send us their comments
3. We collect and provide feedback and lose another couple od days
4. After say 2 weeks they give us a "beta" version that is not even close to our expectations
5. We meet again
6. Someone takes 2 weeks off
7. They have another internal meeting
&c.
Effectively it takes two months of work of their programmers and their managers (with their company cars and golden watches we effectively also pay for). If it was done internally it would take 2 weeks because our project manager would communicate with developers every 2 hours during cigarette breaks.
And we are working with really experienced companies with top-notch programmers and we use tools like Wikis, Basecamp or Skype.
Nevertheless the inherent communication needs kill it all.
The same goes for matrix organisations but this is another topic.
PS: I am exaggerating the problem ofc and most our projects were successful in the end. I am just stressing the "communication needs kill efficiency gains" problem.
Get them on site
It's a fair point. A good way round it is to have the consultancy staff working on site with you. That's what we typically do (I'm a consultant) and it makes a world of difference. And yes, one of our project managers is a smoker, and he gets many project issues resolved during cigarette breaks.
Methodology Matters
Co-location is a best practice, as StringL points out.
Look, too, at your process. Waterfall methods are particularly ineffective for these kinds of efforts. Consider using Agile (Scrum) - daily involvement by the product owner helps ensure alignment.
John Hack