1st Public Sector gig... what to expect?

[mailric]

Yes, lose your attitude.

point taken.. BolshieBastard

[Jonny M]

Two weeks into my first public sector contract and I'm struggling to get used to not having to constantly justify the business case for my project to the Finance Director! Biggest thing for me is the fact that budgets seem to be there to be spent and there is less emphasis on justifying projects. Just picked up a project where a PO had been raised for £250K of software that nobody can convince me is going to work on the proposed architecture! I'd be scraping my b@lls off the Finance Directors floor if that had happened in my last role.

[centurian]

You seem to get more empire building than in private sector, and people do seem to be more willing to stab you in the back.

That's largely becuase those people can't cut it in the private sector - or at least wouldn't get anywhere near that kind of pay.

Hence they feel the need to build a lot more walls to keep them secure and keep those knives sharp.

[Peter Loew]

Two weeks into my first public sector contract and I'm struggling to get used to not having to constantly justify the business case for my project to the Finance Director! Biggest thing for me is the fact that budgets seem to be there to be spent and there is less emphasis on justifying projects. Just picked up a project where a PO had been raised for £250K of software that nobody can convince me is going to work on the proposed architecture! I'd be scraping my b@lls off the Finance Directors floor if that had happened in my last role.

You'll find that more projects in the PS or Gov. space are not focused on a financial ROI as the benefit drivers for investing in a large project or programme. Instead benefits are focused around compliance with JSPs or Gov standard requirements around certain areas of business operation, for example IM - in these cases business performance improvement is sometimes just a happy side affect of project delivery whereas normally and especially in the private sector, the business case will clearly outline the investment strategy and the financial / hard / soft benefits etc. I think this is one reason why they care less about carefully justifying external costs such as body shopping from consultancies, hardware, software lics etc. There is a lot of wasted tax payers money in the PS and Gov. sectors.

[swamp]

I've had permie managers in the public sector that could not run a bath.

I've seen simple processes take many many months that should take weeks or days.

But what stood out most was the Big Consultancies milking the situation, throwing up expensive 'procedures' and producing pointless documentation rather than actually doing anything worthwhile. No such thing as a 'can do' attitude, but a 'can charge' (and bloody well will charge!)

[centurian]

I've had permie managers in the public sector that could not run a bath.

I've seen simple processes take many many months that should take weeks or days.

But what stood out most was the Big Consultancies milking the situation, throwing up expensive 'procedures' and producing pointless documentation rather than actually doing anything worthwhile. No such thing as a 'can do' attitude, but a 'can charge' (and bloody well will charge!)

It wasn't pointless. It had a very good point -for the consultancy - namely to demonstrate in a watertight, bombproof fashion that the consultancy had delivered on whatever it had decided needed to be delivered.

Why do you think government agencies never get a refund on all this consultancy work that turns out to the absolute tosh - because the consultancy puts about 80%+ of the effort into tying them up in knots...

And in the end, if the public sector organisation gets ripped off, who cares - it's only public money...

[swamp]

I've had permie managers in the public sector that could not run a bath.

I've seen simple processes take many many months that should take weeks or days.

But what stood out most was the Big Consultancies milking the situation, throwing up expensive 'procedures' and producing pointless documentation rather than actually doing anything worthwhile. No such thing as a 'can do' attitude, but a 'can charge' (and bloody well will charge!)

It wasn't pointless. It had a very good point -for the consultancy - namely to demonstrate in a watertight, bombproof fashion that the consultancy had delivered on whatever it had decided needed to be delivered.

Why do you think government agencies never get a refund on all this consultancy work that turns out to the absolute tosh - because the consultancy puts about 80%+ of the effort into tying them up in knots...

And in the end, if the public sector organisation gets ripped off, who cares - it's only public money...

Benefits us contractors in the end

Public sector clients will usually realise contractors are far cheaper and more effective than the Big Consultancies.

[NickNick]

But what stood out most was the Big Consultancies milking the situation, throwing up expensive 'procedures' and producing pointless documentation rather than actually doing anything worthwhile. No such thing as a 'can do' attitude, but a 'can charge' (and bloody well will charge!)

I've experienced this myself.

[DieScum]

Public sector IT!

I used to teach a lot of niche tech training classes. Did on-site and public courses.

The public courses were 1500 quid a seat. The difference in quality in the public sector and private sector trainees was very visible, although with some notable exceptions. The police forces seem to have good IT staff. Some of the larger companies have a few public sector like staff.

Out of the four years I did training I think I got two complaints. Both from public sector trainees. Both of which were my own fault as I didn't spot and handle the issues in time, both were a case of the trainees needing more hand holding because they just weren't used to the pace of learning the technology,

In both complaints they brought up the cost of the class. Which is understandable as 1500 would be the lion's shares of a month's wages to them. Of course, they don't have the business understanding to know that is what these things cost in the market.

[DieScum]

they care less about carefully justifying external costs such as body shopping from consultancies, hardware, software lics etc. There is a lot of wasted tax payers money in the PS and Gov. sectors.

It sounds like we are just b1tching here but this is completely true from my experience.

I recently did some work for a local council, actually an outsourced company working for a local council. I think the staff were employed by the outsourced agency but is seems license costs were picked up by the council.

So guess what happened. Low paid, over worked staff. Loads of money spent on licenses for stuff they don't need. Staff members did get free trips to conferences in Europe and the US though provided by the sales team picking up the commission on the licenses.