We have a project coming up at work, and somehow the documentation has been assigned to my office while an outide contractor has been hired to do the training. Management requests no duplication of effort and we use each other's work, however, there have been no meetings between the two groups and there probably won't be for a few weeks. However, I need to start the project now, and my boss is pushing me for a plan for the colloboration.
I've never done this before. I could certainly come up with something, but it would be my best guess. Has anyone done a project where you combine in-house labor with contract labor? What was the best way to share the work and avoid stepping on each other or missing things?
Posted by vonk (Member # 9027) on :
I would contact the point person with the contractor as soon as possible. If you can't meet face to face, have a conference call. Flesh out the process in as detailed a way as possible. Write down every single step until project completion, even if it seems redundant. Use this list to compile a production schedule in which every line item has corresponding date, time and person/department to handle it, as well as contact information. Then you can seperate the tasks by the person handling them and everyone will have a complete list of everything expected of them without any duplication of work. There should be a master list handled by a specific person so that any changes to the production schedule are communicated in-house as well as with the contractor.
I don't know if that helps, but that's how we do it in the event production world.
Posted by Dagonee (Member # 5818) on :
I've done this from the contractor side, and the only thing that has a chance of working is an up-front meeting carefully defining the roles, deliverables, and responsible parties. If you have to start before you can have such a meeting, expect to duplicate some work.