Frequently asked questions
Question:
Who manages the project?
Answer:
The level of project management done by both sides needs to be agreed prior to contract. Again it will depend to some extent on the project management and budgetary resources available to the education organisation and hence to how much project management is kept in-house and how much is passed to the supplier. At one level clearly it is the responsibility of the education organisation to manage the overall project and ensure that its requirements are met. However, as a result of the contract you are delegating responsibility and risk for key elements of the project – namely the implementation of the EDRM system - to the preferred supplier. Hence in most EDRM projects the supplier will be given the task of producing a detailed implementation timetable and project plan covering the EDRM system implementation and listing the roles and responsibilities of both parties. This would be discussed and amended and agreed by both parties and then updated as required subject to agreement by both parties. Both parties may have their own risks and issues registers but normally it would be the education organisation’s role to maintain the master risk and issues register.
Question:
How do we agree a realistic implementation timetable?
Answer:
This is via an iterative set of processes. You start with your objectives and as realistic an assessment as possible of how long it will take to support a large scale implementation. The suppliers will comment on the timetable in their tenders. You then discuss the timetable with the preferred supplier in detail and agree all the tasks for the model office and the pilot. You agree the timetable for those two phases and at the end of them you review the timetable for the steps in the roll out based on experience. While you should always keep some pressure on timetables there is no point in trying to impose an unrealistic timetable.
Question:
What services should the supplier provide and what should we do ourselves?
Answer:
See stage four for a detailed review of the options. This question is answered in the Frequently asked questions in stage four. We repeat it here to make the point that you may wish to revisit the exact split of responsibilities at this stage. The preferred supplier might be very strong in some areas of service provision. Hence under change control you could make adjustments at this stage.
