Consultants, Contractors, and Outsourcing

Consultants engaged to assist with operating or project concept formulation need to be retained through the system concepts department, the home department for in-house system architects. Similarly, consultants and contractors engaged to assist with project management and system development need to be retained through the project management and development resource pool home departments, even if much of the work itself is performed at a remote site. This consultant/contractor engagement practice is consistent with the chief information officer being held accountable for furnishing project team personnel, either in-house or through consulting and contracting firms, unless the equivalent of the three information systems division (ISD) home department managers and staff are outsourced. In that case the TPP framework still applies. A discussion of outsourcing pros and cons is beyond the scope of this book; aspects relating to transformational project systems work are considered in Chapter 5.

Consultants and contractors must work within the beginning-to-end accountability structure of the TPP framework. Keeping them within this accountability structure promotes ISD participation that enhances the probability of successful system implementation. Danger exists both in adopting outside ideas and practices that might not work for the company, and in feeling that all of a company’s practices are superior to others’ because of past and current levels of success. Information systems divisions (ISD) must be involved—even if outside consultants are relied upon—in creative formulation of the operating and project concepts for the following two reasons. People do not support what they are not involved in, and information systems divisions can assist in evaluating the workability of the operating and project concepts.