Project Management with the IBM Rational Unified Process: Lessons From The Trenches

Chapter 4. Best Practices for Staffing the Outsourcing Organization's Project Management Office (PMO)

Given the complexity of today's projects, the days of delivering a pile of requirement documents to your contractor and then hoping for the best are over. A common characteristic of successful outsourced projects is the close collaboration or partnership formed between the outsourcing organization and the contractor. This collaboration occurs on many levels and does not happen by accident. The RUP and other modern iterative development methodologies have gone a long way toward helping software developers build software better and faster. Yet not much attention has been given to the relationships formed between the outsourcing organization and the contractors. Most literature I have encountered discussing the RUP seems to assume that the entire software development team (and, in most cases, the customer) belongs to the same company or organization. This is not the case in an outsourcing situation. Large projects may involve a number of contractors in addition to the outsourcing organization itself. Even when an organization outsources a project, it still has significant involvement. The purpose of this chapter is to assist those in the outsourcing organization who may be embarking upon their first outsourced project. This chapter defines the key roles in the outsourcing organization's staff and how they can interface with the contractor to increase the chances of success on projects. It also explores the key activities of each role. This helps the project manager in the outsourcing organization plan the staffing of his organization. Finally, some practices should be established as part of forming a Project Management Office (PMO) in an outsourcing organization.