32 • Program Management in Defense and High Tech Environments
On time and material (T&M) contracts, cost control is a shared respon-
sibility with the customer. While the nancial risk to your program is
reduced, remember that that risk is actually transferred to your customer.
He or she has to make sure that he or she is getting what he or she is pay-
ing for; therefore, remember on these contracts, which are T&M precisely
because it is dicult to quantify the deliverables and the amount of work
necessary to produce them, it is inherently problematic to gauge progress. It
is important to make the customer aware of your progress, and set up ways
that he or she can be successful in monitoring your progress. For exam-
ple, if the deliverables ...