17.4 Subcontractor Management

Subcontractor management is necessary when parts of a product are produced by another company or organizational unit with which an agreement on delivery of specified components has been formed . Components delivered by subcontractors may represent small parts of a product or the whole product, which the company assembles.

Either way, it's important to select well-qualified subcontractors and create an agreement containing a clear definition of the extent of the work, its progress, and the conditions of collaboration. An agreement on configuration management requirements and related interfaces should not be omitted.

It's important to study how subcontractors perform configuration management and how subcontractors' process descriptionsif they exist, which they hopefully domatch the company's. It may be necessary to adjust the configuration management processes between the company and the subcontractors, but who should adjust to whom cannot be stated definitively. Some companies deliberately choose subcontractors who are more mature than they are, to enhance their own maturity.

Everything that can be placed under configuration management mayin principlebe delivered by subcontractors, or vice versa. When a company defines what must be placed under configuration management, it must take into consideration what is delivered by subcontractors and how configuration management is performed by subcontractors internally. It should be specified clearly to the subcontractors which objects must be placed under configuration management, and when, and the degree of formalism required.

Identification

Items placed under configuration management with a subcontractor must be identified like all other configuration items. Special conventions for identification might be necessary, so that the identification will indicate which subcontractor has delivered a given configuration item. It should also be possible to transfer configuration items to the company's own configuration management system if required, without complications from the unique identification.

Storage

Who is storing what, and where, must be made clear. Where subcontractors deliver whole, self-contained subsystems a problem will not usually arise with storage, which can take place at the subcontractor's site until delivery. Where subcontractors deliver parts with many interfaces to parts developed elsewhere, storage may be similar to storage for geographically distributed development.

Change Control

Interfaces for change control must also be made clear. Ideally, the company and the subcontractors will use a common event registration system, so all events are registered in the same place. The configuration control boards will channel change requests to those responsible, whether in the company or with a subcontractor.

However, it's not always possible to give everybody access to such a common event registration system. It must be agreed how subcontractors should register events and how these registrations are to be consolidated within the company. Composition of the configuration control boards in relation to subcontractors must also be determinedwhich boards can be composed locally by a subcontractor and which must have representatives of other stakeholders (the company, other subcontractors, and/or the customer).

Status Reporting

The company must clearly define its requirements for subcontractor status reporting. It may be advantageous for the company to be able to extract status reports itself, but this is not always possible. Channels of command should be decided for preparation and delivery of status reports . Moreover, the need for consolidation of status information must be considered .

Delivery

One day, items produced by the subcontractor must be delivered to the company. It should be specified clearly when such delivery must take place and what the requirements are for configuration management in this connection:

  • How much is to be delivered? All versions, all metadata, and all information concerning configuration management, or only some of thisand, if so, which parts?

  • Does the company take over the responsibility for maintaining the components delivered, or does it remain with the subcontractor?



Configuration Management Principles and Practice
Configuration Management Principles and Practice
ISBN: 0321117662
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2002
Pages: 181

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