Evaluating an Indian provider

[Wilmslow]

We have an Indian firm doing the strategy docs. Not my choice, believe me, but they want me to write an evaluation criteria document.

The problem is that clientco want things that can be measured to crunch numbers with.

Can anyone point to any evaluation processes that may be of use, or got any thoughts? (Other than run a mile and don’t go permie )

[oracleslave]

Not sure I understand what you are trying to evaluate? Are you evaluating the company itself before giving them the job? Are you evaluating the quality of work they are producing? If it's strategy work surely that can only be evaluated 6 months or more down the line?

[Wilmslow]

Not sure I understand what you are trying to evaluate? Are you evaluating the company itself before giving them the job? Are you evaluating the quality of work they are producing? If it's strategy work surely that can only be evaluated 6 months or more down the line?

Evaluating the work they are producing, they have already been selected, but that is another matter!

We need to assess both current work, and tyres hit tarmac.

Current work - assess things like do they nod, say yes, and deliver tulip, or how do they engage with us, poke and prod and all that.

Mid-flight - do they run away? Are they training people effectively in the processes, do they update and tweak as required?

that kinda stuff.....

Many are soft skills, my challenge is to change gut feel to numbers.

[Dow Jones]

I beg your pardon?

Are you saying that they have already been approved? So what is the point of doing an evaluation? The criteria they'll be judged against are the ones that should have been applied in the first place. All you've been asked to do is a progress report with or without some 'milestones' thrown in for good measure. I think you said you are a test mgr, this is a PM job, why was it given to you? Or did you 'volunteer'? I pity the company you work for, not a very good choice you've made here. Better get out soon.

[51st State]

Evaluating the work they are producing, they have already been selected, but that is another matter!

We need to assess both current work, and tyres hit tarmac.

Current work - assess things like do they nod, say yes, and deliver tulip, or how do they engage with us, poke and prod and all that.

Mid-flight - do they run away? Are they training people effectively in the processes, do they update and tweak as required?

that kinda stuff.....

Many are soft skills, my challenge is to change gut feel to numbers.

How are you reviewing their work on a technical level? Code reviews, unit test plan/results reviews etc? If yes, then putting a "score" against this is easy.

Take a similar approach for Softy Skills. Break down the expected behaviours (as a permie you'll have these as a half-arsed job description or something) into lower levels on a scale of 1-10. 1=carp, 10=proactive comms etc. You could put it into a lovely spreadsheet.

Then ask the other permies who've had contact to rate them.

Not really difficult to get to a raw performance number.