How critical is it to the success of a project to have a strong client/vendor team?
Once you and your vendor have agreed on your business relationship and how the exchange of services for dollars is going to work, do everything you can to get your and your vendor’s staff to view themselves as a single global team with a mission — producing software to meet the objectives of the software project. Select a project name. Let’s use “Project Success” for this example. Constantly refer to the Project Success team, meaning the combined company/vendor team. Find ways to recognize and reward the entire Project Success team without distinction of who is from the company and who is from the vendor. Get them Project Success Key Chains or T-Shirts. Be sure there is adequate face-to-face contact between team members across the course of the project, even if you’re located in different cities.
