Types of external participants

12.2 Types of external participants

The partners to a software development project – the organization that is inter- ested in the software system (the “customer”) and the organization that undertakes to carry out the development (the “contractor”) – are nowadays often not the only participants in the project. The external participants involved in a software development project contribute to the project but are not con- tractors, nor are they the contractor’s partners. Their contributions to the project are structured through agreements with the contractor (subcontractors and suppliers of COTS software) or through those clauses of the project con- The partners to a software development project – the organization that is inter- ested in the software system (the “customer”) and the organization that undertakes to carry out the development (the “contractor”) – are nowadays often not the only participants in the project. The external participants involved in a software development project contribute to the project but are not con- tractors, nor are they the contractor’s partners. Their contributions to the project are structured through agreements with the contractor (subcontractors and suppliers of COTS software) or through those clauses of the project con-

12.3 Ri

that external participants will be required, and the larger the proportion of

work to be transmitted or parceled out. The motivation for turning to exter- nal participants rests on several factors, ranging from the economic to the technical and to personnel-related interests, and reflects a growing trend in

sk

the allocation of the work involved in completing complex projects.

s and benefits

External participants can be classified into three main groups: (1) Subcontractors (currently called “outsourcing” organizations) that

undertake to carry out parts of a project, small or large, according to cir- cumstances. Subcontractors usually offer the contractor at least one of the following benefits: staff availability, special expertise or low prices.

of

(2) Suppliers of COTS software and reused software modules. The advan-

introduc

tages of integrating these ready elements are obvious, ranging from timetable and cost reductions to quality. One expects that integration of these ready-for-use elements will achieve savings in development

ing extern

resources, a shorter timetable and higher quality software. Software of higher quality is expected as these components have already been tested and corrected by the developers as well as corrected according to the faults identified by previous customers. The characteristics of COTS software and quality problems involved in their use are discussed by

al

Basili and Boehm (2001).

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(3) The customer themselves as participant in performing the project. It is

quite common for a customer to perform parts of the project: to apply

ipants

the customers’ special expertise, respond to commercial or other security needs, keep internal development staff occupied, prevent future mainte- nance problems and so forth. This situation does have drawbacks in terms of the customer–supplier relationship necessary for successful per- formance of a project, but they are overweighed by the inputs the customer makes. Hence, the inevitability of this situation has become a standard element of many software development projects and contrac- tual relations.

Typical contracting structures of projects are presented in Figure 12.1.