Making IT Software Delivery Partnerships Work: A CIO's Perspective

As a CIO who has worked with numerous IT software delivery partners over the years, I've learned that successful partnerships are not just about selecting the right company, they are about understanding how to integrate external teams effectively while maintaining your organisation's strengths and culture.  Here is my practical guide for both sides of the partnership equation.

Understanding Your Partnership Needs

Before selecting a partner, you need absolute clarity about what you are trying to achieve.  From my experience leading IT organisations,  partnerships with software development providers typically serve one of three distinct purposes, each requiring a different approach and mindset:

Leveraging Knowledge Experts and Thought Leaders

When my team needs to venture into new territory,  whether it is adopting a new technology stack or implementing an innovative solution, bringing in external experts can accelerate our learning curve.  These partnerships work best when the focus is on knowledge transfer and capability building.  For example, you may be:

• Implementing a new cloud-native architecture where the partner brings experienced architects who not only design the solution but mentor your team through the implementation

• Developing your first machine learning models or forays into AI, with partners working alongside your architects, developers, platform teams and data scientists to establish best practices and development patterns

• Setting up security practices in your pipelines and day to day operations, where partners help establish the toolchain, processes and security controls while training your team

Team Augmentation

There are times when your team's capabilities are exactly right, but you simply need greater capacity.  Whether you're facing tight deadlines, managing multiple concurrent priorities or undertaking a major initiative, bringing in additional team members can help maintain momentum without disrupting your established ways of working.  For example, you may need to:

• Add experienced developers to your team during a major platform upgrade

• Bring in specialised QA engineers to help you build out your automation suite into pipelines

• Supplement your DevOps team during a multi-system cloud migration to act under instruction

Providing Fully Managed Services

For end-to-end product or service delivery, particularly for well-defined systems or platforms, having a partner take full ownership can be highly effective.  In a fully managed service model, your partner will take responsibility for a particular domain area of your IT, maintaining, enhancing an evolving within the scope of your oversight.  This model is popular when your company may have a strategy to reduce costs to run IT Services. Alternatively, you may have a strategy to keep a ‘light’ footprint for an IT team (governance, strategy, architecture as examples) and leverage partners to deliver the products and IT applications, or the business you are in, may not have the goals of building their own internal software development teams.  Partners can provide fully managed services at scale or towards more targeted solutions.  For example, you may have areas such as the following that could be solely managed by a partner:

• Applications that are not core to your business but are necessary to enhance and maintain

• Operating and maintaining legacy systems while your internal teams focus on new development if you need to accelerate your own delivery activities

• Running your service desk or level 1 support operations

As you establish these partnerships, focus on creating an environment where both your internal teams and partners can thrive.  This means making thoughtful decisions about project and work allocation, ensuring your team understands the strategic value of the partnership and maintaining clear communication about roles and expectations. Your internal team's growth and motivation remain essential factors in any partnership model you choose.  Moving beyond operational considerations, equally important is building awareness and appreciation for cultural differences that can impact day-to-day collaboration.

Understanding and Bridging Cultural Differences

A key practice I have consistently found valuable is having an on-site representative from our partner team.  This person serves as a bridge between organisations, helping build rapport and establish effective working patterns.  In the past, I have also requested this role rotates to give others from the partner team a chance to work side by side with our own teams.  You may choose to have your partner work completely offsite, that’s ok too.  Regardless of what you do settle on, some basic considerations are:

• Time Zone Management:  Establish "core hours" where teams overlap for key meetings.  This needs to be set up carefully from the outset as your own team need to not see this as a burden and need to learn techniques on how to ensure the time zones can be used effectively.

  • Rotate meeting times to share the burden of early/late calls

  • Record important sessions for asynchronous viewing (applies to both parties)

  • Use tools like Slack or MS Teams for continuous communication across time zones

  • Think ahead with questions.  If your partner asks for something out of your team’s core hours, they need to try to provide full context of the source of the question so that your team can answer as best they can i.e. ‘if I am being asked this question now, what will be the next question when I provide this answer?’

• Communication Styles:  Remember that your team's primary language may not be your partner's first language.  Communication requires patience and empathy in all interactions however it can also create an opportunity to develop more precise and thoughtful communication habits that benefit everyone.  Your team’s need to be aware that:

  • Different cultures may have varying levels of directness in communication

  • Some partner team members might be hesitant to disagree openly in meetings (so may some of your own team!)

  • Written communication might be preferred over verbal in some cultures

  • Online meetings with cameras on should be encouraged but it is not always practical to do this.  Interactions and relationships will be more positive with the camera on but your teams need to be aware that body language and gestures can have different meanings

  • Informal language (slang), jargon or lingo may be misinterpreted or not understood.

Some areas to consider to help bridge the cultural differences include:

• Decision-Making: Create explicit frameworks for decision-making that account for different cultural approaches

  • Use written proposals for important decisions to avoid miscommunication

  • Establish and communicate clear escalation paths that respect both organisational hierarchies

  • Document decisions and rationale for transparency, share directly to the teams or individuals impacted and ensure there is an ongoing trail where decisions may change or evolve based on more information or data being available

• Team Collaboration: Regardless of what partnership model is being implemented, setting up a strong foundation for true collaboration, trust and working together is key to a successful partnership:

  • Implement "buddy systems" pairing internal and partner team members

  • Create cultural awareness training for both teams

  • Team’s can learn some phrases and small talk in each other’s native language

  • Share calendars of important holidays and cultural events

  • Establish team working agreements that acknowledge different working styles

    
    

Understanding Organisational Differences

Having some insights into what is motivating the individual contributors and managers in your partner’s organisation will aid in understanding some of the actions or behaviours that your partner displays during your working relationship.

• Recognition and Reward Systems: It is fair to say that it is unlikely that your company performance metrics and your reward systems are the same as your partners.  Additionally, your partner’s team will likely be structured and managed differently internally.  Having some insights into how your partner’s company is established, the metrics they measure for success and how they establish and grow their employees will help you and your team understand context and build empathy.  For example:

  • Partner teams may have different career progression paths

  • Appreciation and recognition customs can differ

  • Understand how partner team members are evaluated and rewarded

• Hierarchy and Authority: Some cultures have more formal hierarchical structures.  The company may have an established organisation structure that reflects this.  What may seem unusual or an overhead to the team, may actually be established to assist with the smooth running of the operations.  Be aware that:

  • Decision-making authority might be more centralised in partner organisations

  • Respect for seniority might manifest differently

  • Understanding reporting relationships and their impact

Creating a Foundation of Trust and Safety

One of the most critical elements of a successful partnership is creating an environment where both teams feel secure and valued.  This goes beyond simple team building, it is about establishing genuine psychological safety that enables open communication and knowledge sharing.

For Your Internal Teams:

• Acknowledge and address job security concerns openly:

  • Clearly communicate any changes in roles and responsibilities, particularly expectations around working together with an external partner

  • Be transparent in discussing growth opportunities that partnerships will bring to the teams if they are successful

  • Focus on how partnership enables team to work on higher-value initiatives (if it does)

  • Regularly reinforce team members' value and importance

• Support knowledge sharing: Recognise the effort and time it takes for effective knowledge transfer

  • Time allocated specifically for documentation and training

  • Celebration of successful partner team enablement

  • Opportunities to learn new skills while teaching others

For Partner Teams:

• Create safe spaces for learning:

  • Give explicit permission to ask questions, encourage questions

  • Protect time for knowledge acquisition

  • Establish any documentation expectations (for what is known and unknown)

  • Perform regular check-ins on understanding with your client

• Demonstrate value during the initial transition phase:

  • Structure information gathering to show thoughtful analysis

  • Share insights from similar experiences

  • Identify potential improvements while respecting current practices

  • Balance learning with contributing.  Look for small opportunities to start working and delivering value early.  It sets the tone.

And Together:

• Establish regular retrospectives focused on:

  • Knowledge transfer effectiveness

  • Communication challenges

  • Process improvements

  • Relationship building

  • Creating more effective feedback loops that benefit both teams

Document and share lessons learned through media and tools that can be acted upon and evolve as the partnership evolves.

Building Face-to-Face Relationships

Virtual collaboration tools are excellent, but nothing replaces face-to-face interaction for building strong relationships and trust. In the early stages of the engagement, establish on-site visits from partner team leads and key members. In those visits, focus on:

• Initial knowledge transfer sessions

• Team building activities

• Working sessions to set goals together and establish working practices

• Relationship building with key stakeholders

Reciprocate by visiting your partner’s location(s) as well, where your team can:

• Establish a better understanding of your partner team’s culture and environment

• Build empathy for working conditions

• Experience any communication challenges first hand

• Strengthen personal connections

As the relationship matures over time, ensure there are regularly planned in-person sessions where the teams can get together to run:

• Quarterly planning meetings

• Technical deep dives

• Innovation workshops

• Social events and team building

As mentioned earlier, it is important to ensure that any onsite partner team members are rotated on a regular basis so that:

• Different team members get exposure

• There can be fresh perspectives on collaboration

• Relationships can be strengthened

• New team members can benefit from working onsite alongside the teams

• Rotating team members can take learnings from experience back into their broader teams.

Effective Stakeholder Engagement

I have found that one common mistake in partnerships is over-emphasising the importance on senior stakeholder relationships over and above the day-to-day working relationships.  Understandable as the partner will want to establish longevity in the relationship and look at opportunities to grow.  That said, in my view, there needs to be the right level of engagement between both parties.

For instance, at the executive level, there can be:

• Strategic alignment discussions

• High-level performance reviews

• Future planning and innovation

• Major issue resolution

At the management level:

• Operational oversight

• People planning on both sides to support the partnership success

• Any engagement process improvement and active risk management

And at the team level:

• Work planning

• Daily collaboration

• Technical decision-making

• Problem-solving

• Knowledge sharing

• Celebrating successful outcomes together

It is imperative that trust is built across all levels of the partnership.  Some ideas to help nurture the trust across the teams:

• Focus engagement on value creation:

  • Tailor communications to each audience

  • Address concerns specific to each level

  • Show progress relevant to each stakeholder

  • Demonstrate understanding of different perspectives

• Create multiple (relevant) feedback channels:

  • Establish regular team retrospectives

  • Set up anonymous surveys and run frequently to capture any early warnings that need to be addressed

  • Regularly perform one-on-one check-ins

  • From time to time hold focused group discussion forums around specific areas of the relationship

I have also experienced the number of meetings go up, so it is good to set an appropriate framework for meetings versus any delivery ceremonies and make sure your teams are ready to support and prioritise interactions with your partners.

The Difference Between Vendors and True Partners

My early experiences with partnerships I had inherited often followed a familiar pattern: escalations would be a daily occurrence (it seemed like it), contracts would be brandished like weapons and SLAs would become battlegrounds as frustrations mounted and we would be wringing what we could from our partner.  The mindset was simple but flawed: as the customer, we were always right.  This approach, I learned, was a recipe for mutual disappointment and would not generate the success I would hope from establishing external partners to help with my delivery.  Typically, I would experience:

• Quarterly business reviews focused solely on operational metrics such as:

  • Velocity metrics like number of story points delivered

  • Trending defect counts and resolution times

  • Resource (people!) utilisation rates

  • SLA compliance statistics

• A siloed team structure:  Separate Development, QA and DevOps teams (as an example) and them all running separate ceremonies, updates and reporting which created more work for my teams

• Minimal interaction with business stakeholders as my team’s feared that the partner would reflect badly on our teams by asking foolish questions, not understanding what they are being told or overcommitting to something they cannot fulfil as they do not have the ‘big picture’

• Account managers who appear only when issues arise and who don’t truly work with you on your business success.  The drop in solutions would be to throw more people at a problem, change a process or have my team document clearer instructions.

• ‘Scope Creep’ was a frequently used term and managed through a bureaucratic change request process that reflected negatively across the teams.  Debates would ensure around defects versus changes versus ‘an issue was there before we came along’

• Frustrations and blame would be rife across the teams

  
  

That said, the engagements would work but they were exhausting and nobody truly enjoyed participating in them.  These became my own triggers or measures of when a partnership wasn’t going well.

Through investing effort and my team’s implementing strategies and steps outlined in this post, we started to see new indicators of success:

• Partner teams articulate:

  • Your company's key business objectives

  • How their current activities contribute to your company’s goals

  • The end-user (customer) impact of their work

  • Market challenges and opportunities and how their solutions are meeting them

• Partner teams focus reporting on:

  • Business outcome achievements

  • Customer satisfaction improvements

  • Market share gains

  • Innovation contributions

  • Revenue impact of technical initiatives

• Collaboration is through:

  • Regular joint planning sessions

  • Shared retrospectives and lessons learned

  • Celebration of mutual successes

  • Combined innovation workshops

  • Proactive problem identification and solution proposals

• Alignment on success metrics such as:

  • Revenue growth targets

  • Customer satisfaction scores

  • Market share objectives

  • Cost reduction goals

  • System performance improvements

  • Security posture enhancements

  • Technical debt reduction

  • Developer metrics, e.g. DORA, SPACE, DevEx, DX Core 4

Final Thoughts

This may seem like a lot of work but the rewards should outweigh the efforts if you are looking to build long standing relationships that can flex and scale as your business grows.  The most successful partnerships I have seen are those where the line between internal and partner teams becomes blurred.  Not in terms of responsibilities, but in terms of commitment to success.  Your partner's teams should be as excited about your company's achievements as your internal teams are.

Remember that cultural differences, when properly understood and managed, can become a source of strength rather than a challenge.  Creating psychological safety and building strong relationships at all levels are not just nice-to-haves, they are fundamental to success.  While it may seem like extra effort and cost to invest in face-to-face meetings and relationship building, this investment pays dividends through better collaboration, faster problem resolution and more innovative solutions.

For IT software service companies reading this: differentiate yourselves by truly embedding your teams in your client's success.  Move beyond the traditional metrics of delivery efficiency to demonstrate real business impact.  Show that you understand not just the technical requirements, but the business context and market dynamics that drive them.

For CIOs and IT Leaders: invest time in finding partners who demonstrate this level of commitment.  Look for those who ask questions about your business strategy, not just your technical requirements.  The extra effort in preparation and partnership building will pay dividends in the form of truly integrated teams working toward shared success.