These days, flexible contracting / vendor management is all the rage in outsourcing / contract management literature i.e. building contracts that handle the unknown events that will occur as time passes. Interestingly, identical discussions are now occuring in the project management and IT management worlds. For example, the article below discusses using an iterative approach rather than a big bang approach to implementing master data management.

I'm pleased to see this trend. Iteration and review is only way contracts and projects can be managed. Because no one knows the future, the vendor and purchaser are two blind people walking into the unknowable future. Without the ability to make micro-adjustments as they go, they are unlikely to arrive at their chosen destination.

Justifying and Implementing Master Data Management

An optimal rollout will not repeat the mistakes of early data warehouses (and almost all other projects). It also will be iterative, tackling subject areas on a priority basis and allowing for the possibility of any of the management architectures, depending on the situation. This corporate subject area evaluation, establishment of data stewardship and a data quality program, and a technology evaluation are some of the initial steps to MDM success.

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