The Contract For Melba Tours And Blacksoft IT Requires An Essay.

Discuss about the Contract for Melba Tours and Blacksoft IT.

A local, newly established city tour guide called “Melba Tours” is the project client and would like to create their website presentation that forms a vital part of their business plan. “Blacksoft IT” is chosen as the developer for the project and has been asked to create the web site of the client in the defined budget and scheduled timeframe.

• To be able to create value with the association of Melba Tours and Blacksoft IT
• To agree upon the quality parameters that will be followed and provided during the project
• To manage and decide upon the productivity between the two parties
• To ensure compliance to the standards that are followed in two organizations in terms of methodology and development procedure

• Requirements for the project including the functional, non-functional, quality and user requirements
• Approval of the various documents
• Assistance in terms of decision making

• Present the 3 different city routes that the Melba Tours currently offering (Golden Mile, Botanic Garden and St Vincent cathedral) with details on each route and most importantly the images of each attraction
• Online booking system where tourists can book one of the 3 tours that are conducted each day for each destination. Clients should enter their personal and contact details and receive confirmation of booking. Clients should also be able to re-schedule or modify (delete) the booking as required.
• The staff members should be able to manage the bookings, add bookings or move, modify or delete the existing booking if requested by client
• Each staff member has to login to the system to access the bookings
• Each user will belong to a different group with different rights
• Managers can delete and/or modify the bookings
• Other staff members can only view/modify the bookings.
• The time and date are displayed in the browser, with the DD-MM-YY format being followed by the time.
• The type and version of the user’s browser is displayed at the top of the page.
• Pop-up window is launched with navigation buttons for previous, next and close should an image in the table be clicked showing the full-size of the image.
• Disable the context (right mouse button) menu.

• The project will be completed in the budget of AUD 8000 – AUD 10000
• The project will be completed in a period of three weeks
• The web site will be created using the agile software development and the management methodology will be PMBOK
• The tools and equipment cost will be covered in the budget defined
• The quality standards will be maintained for all the project activities as per the six sigma quality framework

• The project will be completed in the budget of AUD 8000 – AUD 10000

• Project Client – Melba Tours
• Project Sponsor – Melba Tours
• Project Manager – Blacksoft IT
• Project Developer - Blacksoft IT
• Testing Engineer - Blacksoft IT
• Implementation Expert - Blacksoft IT
• UI/UX designer - Blacksoft IT

The limits and range that are applied while creating a contract between the parties are termed as boundaries of a contract 

• Legal Boundaries
• Infrastructural Boundaries
• Management Boundaries

A tangible contract management function assists in managing obligations in an effective manner; this saves the two parties significant time and effort and provides benefits in terms of business strategies and procedures. Contract Management is important throughout the entire process of the contract cycle and not just at award process, effective contract management will bear dividends for both supplier and purchaser to ensure a well managed trading agreement in practical and logistical terms. 

Effective contract management starts at the sourcing process through to the relationship management of the supplier to ensure the optimum efficiency and increased service levels so as to avoid having to utilize contractual terms to achieve the performance expectations. It’s a process that requires teamwork and partnership skills through regular reviews and engagement. The following steps will be followed to implement and manage the contract between the two parties as Melba Tours and Blacksoft IT.

Envisioning the goals and identification of the problem

Mapping out new contract process requires company to look back on its current processes:

• • What are current steps? Note all the activities in the process from start to finish. Put them in order to get an idea of how the work flows.
  • What steps need to change or eliminate? Identify steps that could be inconsistent or slows the process down. Steps can be combined to save time or excluded if they create errors or slow downs.
  • What are the process input and outputs?
• Identification of the stakeholders

• Who will own the process? There need to be a handful of individuals to act as the authority on decision-making and post-rollout. They need visibility into the whole process to enforce their decisions.
• Who will administer? There should be at least two administrators who know the solution in and out. They can answer day-to-day questions and train other employees on the solution.
• Who are the executive sponsors? Support from senior management in your company is critical. They will help encourage the transition, enforce new roles and make the decision on expanding the solution after it’s been successful.
• Who are the subject matter experts? Finding SME’s who love the solution will help advocate the solution and boost adoption. They can also identify tricks or shortcuts that can resonate with other employees learning the solution (Gutterman, 2016).
• Documentation activities

• Preparation of performance rating data sheet
• Based on the parameters defined in Data Sheet, Performance of concerned Contractor would be computed and graded accordingly. The measurement of the performance of the Party would be its ability to achieve the minimum scoring points in the given parameters (Bifm, 2014)
• Depending upon the Grading of Performance, corrective measures would be initiated by taking up the matter with concerned Contractor. Response of Contractor would be considered before deciding further course of action (Cantens, 2016) 

Sr. No.	Report	Content	Frequency	Location
1	Daily Status report	Project activities and progress	Daily
2	Weekly Status Report	Key project activities in the said week, list of open issues, and project report with test status.	Weekly
3	Defect Report	A full list of defects logged in the week along with last known status	Weekly
4	Monthly Status Report	Key project updates. Extract from metrics. Milestone track	Monthly
5	Project Completion Report	Consolidated project report with all test inventory	One Time

• Give agency chief acquisition officers the responsibility and authority for overseeing both the contracting and program management communities to ensure effective collaboration in all elements of the acquisition process, from developing requirements to awarding contracts, to assessing contractor performance
• Designate career senior procurement executives as deputies to chief acquisition officers to ensure full coordination of agency-wide acquisition functions.
• Put in place a robust human capital strategic planning process that provides a full picture of all federal and contractor resources likely to be needed to accomplish agency missions.
• Provide sufficient resources to ensure that the right people with the right talent are in place to carry out all aspects of the acquisition function (including seeing that contractors are producing the business results sought).
• Establish a new business council that reports directly to the agency head at each civilian agency. This council should be chaired by a deputy secretary and meetings should be attended by the chief acquisition officer, chief financial officer, chief information officer, and chief human capital officer of the agency. Each chief should have an equal vote on internal human resources, operational, programmatic, and funding issues (Burman, 2016).

• Getting customer feedback through third party agencies.
• Direct marketing, in-house call centers, complaint handling department could be treated as first point of contact for getting customer feedback. These feedbacks are compiled to analyze customers’ perception.
• Getting customer feedback through face to face conversation or meeting.
• Feedback through complaint or appreciation letter.
• Direct customer feedback through surveys and questionnaires.

• Customer Complaints:Customer’s complaints are the issues and problems reported by the customer to supplier with regards to any specific product or related service. These complaints can be classified under different segments according to the severity and department. 

• Customer Loyalty:It is necessarily required for an organization to interact and communicate with customers on a regular basis to increase customer loyalty. In these interactions and communications it is required to learn and determine all individual customer needs and respond accordingly. 

References 

Bifm,. (2014). Measuring Contractors Performance Using KPIs (1st ed.). British Institute of Facilities Management.

Burman, A. (2016). Six Practical Steps to Improve Contracting. Retrieved 13 September 2016, from https://www.ago.noaa.gov/acquisition/docs/six_steps_to_contracting_2009.pdf 

Cantens, T. (2016). Wcoomd.org. Retrieved 13 September 2016, from https://www.wcoomd.org/en/media/newsroom/2015/may/~/media/F965A98326164D2195BBDD810F332317.ashx

Gutterman, A. (2016). Top Ten Steps for Effective Contract Management. Acc.com. Retrieved 13 September 2016, from https://www.acc.com/legalresources/publications/topten/ttsecm.cfm