Problemy Zarządzania Dostawcami w Projektach Informatycznych

The purpose of the article is to show the root causes of effectiveness loss in realization of IT projects implemented by external vendor as well as to discuss the mechanisms fostering the realization of this type of projects. In the article three key problems have been defined: the information asymmetry between the client and the vendor, high transaction specifics of the IT system implementation and multitasking of the vendor and client project teams. Two first problems are discussed within the framework of the new institutional economy, and multitasking is a key concept of the critical chain method in project management introduced by E. Goldratt. The means to reduce the IT projects risks conducted by external vendor are: contractual mechanisms such as project contract type and contractual agreements. On the other hand there are a wide range of other mechanisms which can regulate the cooperation between the client and the vendor such as: procurement policy, setting-up the requirements analysis as a separate project, engagement of external expert in the procurement process, project management practices or building a relationship with vendors based on former experience and trust as well as implementation of ‘agile’ methods into project management.