Managing Vendor Relationships in Development

Projects

Katherine Kott

Stanford University Libraries

DLF Project Managers Group

November 2, 2011

Why work with vendors?

• Project requires specialized resources for brief duration

• Short term funding creates recruitment challenges

• Shift from traditional service models (ILS) to vendor participation in open source communities

Processes, opportunities, challenges

• Selecting• Hiring and managing• Integrating work cultures

– Work practices– Tools

Find the right fit

Blue Footed Booby Courtship Display 5 of 7, A. Davey

Spend time on the pre-nup

108 Copy of Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban's pre-nuptial agreement, Mirandala

They’re just like us!

A formally trained librarian!!!

With slightly different priorities…

Library• Service, linked to library

mission• Technical innovation (grant

funded)• Get it done right

Vendor• Bottom line, cost

containment• Service to customer• Technical innovation (if a

start-up or customer funds)• Get it done on time and on

budget

When the honeymoon is over

just a couple of dirty socks lying on the floor, terremonto

Get ready for daily life together

Define expectations, terms, roles, responsibilities and tools

• What does it mean to iterate?

• How much must be specified up front?

• What are the feedback mechanisms?– For bug fixing– For unsatisfactory

work?

• Point person match-ups– PM to PM– Developer to

Developer

• Whose tools to use?– PM– Communication– Bug tracking

Case study background…

• Drupal-based library website redesign• Complex project

– Library Executive Sponsor– Library Governance Group– Library User Experience Group– Digital Library Systems and Service project

management and technical management– And the vendor…

Notes from the trenches

Plus• Significant in-person

meeting time at project launch (local vendor)

• Weekly standup with developer on site

• Collaboration improved our process– Ability to estimate– Ability to make decisions and

move forward

Delta• Co-presence of developers

did not create auto-magic collaboration

• Insisting vendor use our tracking tool

• Proliferation of information channels is confusing

• Initial culture clash

Lessons learned

• We could not have done this project without vendor involvement

• We can learn a few things from vendors as we scale-up digital library operations– Service definitions– Clearly defined project scope– Estimating work– Making decisions and moving forward

Other observations? Questions? Discussion?

Thank you!

kkott@stanford.edu