I worked at a company that had out sourced development on a new system, the contract paid if they delievered x amount of code each month — but there was nothing in the contract that said it had to work. The IT department found this funny, also tons of bad purchases, contracts — because IT wasn’t invite to be part of the negotiations — just Business folks who “know” what they are doing.

SLA’s, comments that code has to work, that is all IT management type of thinking that management of other types doesn’t think about, and they don’t include in contracts. And lets face it, if the organization is so bad it can’t put together a decent IT department, what make you think they can put together a project management group (specializing in IT) that can run an outsource contract? They don’t have the talent pool needed to outsource IT, it is not like a construction contract…. I would bet they used project managers who were use to physical construction projects.

A new book, Waltzing wth the Elephant (look for it with your search engine) provides a comprehensive explanation of ISO 38500, and plaain language guidance for directors and executives who need not know IT detail in order to exert effectve control. The book includes some explicit discussion of outsourcing.