We are outsourcing our AI infrastructure development to an external vendor, but we are experiencing constant delays. How do we assign accountability on our internal Accountability Chart for managing this vendor relationship when our current team lacks technical depth?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

A common mistake is assuming that because a project is technical, only a software engineer can manage it. This leads to poor vendor oversight and endless project delays. On your Accountability Chart, you must assign clear ownership of the vendor relationship to a seat that GWC™ the role. GWC™ stands for Get It, Want It, and have the Capacity to do it. The person in this seat does not need to know how to write code. They must, however, understand the business requirements, the desired outcomes, and how to hold external partners accountable to timelines and deliverables. This role belongs in the operations or technology seat, not in a siloed IT department. The metric for this seat should be project milestone adherence and system integration success. Have this leader run regular status updates in your weekly Level 10 Meeting™. If the vendor continues to miss deadlines, treat it as an issue and IDS® it. Having a non-technical leader who is highly organized and focused on operational outcomes is often more effective at managing external developers than a technical specialist who lacks project management discipline.