Project actors: owner and contractor
Who does what in a software project: the project owner who carries the need, the budget and the acceptance, the prime contractor who builds the solution, the owner's advisor, the project manager, the steering committee and the users.
- 21 cards
- 5 topics
- Free
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Each topic is weighted the way the exam weighs it.
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A few cards from the deck
Project owner (MOA): what is it?
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The entity on whose behalf the project is carried out: it states the need, funds the project, sets the scope and signs off the acceptance.
It is the client in the project sense, not necessarily the end user. It decides the what and the why; the how belongs to the prime contractor.
Who signs off the acceptance of delivered software?
- The project owner
- The prime contractor, who knows the delivered product best
- The supplier's project manager
- The owner's advisor
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The project owner
Only the client can say the product meets the need it stated. The owner's advisor may help prepare and run the acceptance, but the decision is the client's.
An … helps the client state its need, write the requirements and monitor the supplier, without building the solution.
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An owner's advisor helps the client state its need, write the requirements and monitor the supplier, without building the solution.
The client often lacks IT expertise: the advisor provides it, but the client remains the decision-maker and answers for the acceptance.
Prime contractor (MOE): what is it?
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The entity the client entrusts with designing and building the solution, and with meeting the agreed deadlines and quality.
It chooses the technical means and organises the build. It advises the owner but does not rule in its place on scope or acceptance.
At delivery, the client rejects the application: "this is not what we asked for". Nobody signed any specification, and the client never answered the team's questions. Which fix prevents a repeat?
- Name a responsible person on the client side and have the specifications validated in writing before the build
- Have the development team test the application more before delivery
- Hand the acceptance over to the prime contractor to save time
- Add a second project manager on the supplier side
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Name a responsible person on the client side and have the specifications validated in writing before the build
The cause is an absent project owner and no formal validation: without a validated need, no team test can prove the right thing was built.