Two must-haves for you and your outsourcing partner

1. Security

As Herjavec Group is stating, a recent study by Gartner revealed that as the number of COVID-19 cases spiked globally, so did cyberattacks. From February 1st to April 10th of this year, there was a 65 % increase in demand for cybersecurity professionals in the U.S. and a 5 percent uptick in the U.K.

According to Dmitri Alperovitch, executive chairman at Silverado Policy Accelerator and co-founder, former CTO of CrowdStrike – “people often misunderstand the attacks – they don’t happen at the speed of light, it often takes months or years to get the right level of access in a network and ultimately to be able to push the trigger and cause a destructive act”

You need to understand how the attackers are thinking and follow some simple rules that can protect you and help your company not to become a victim.

Here is some advice on this topic:

– Expect to be attacked
It does not matter how big or how small your company is, don’t ever think that you would not be attacked. If you hold data, passwords, emails etc. this makes you a very attractive target for hackers.
Nowadays, ransomware outbreaks have shown that everyone can be a target and, afterward, become a victim. Our advice for you is to know your assets, make some plans for different attacks scenarios.

– Do not neglect password security
Use strong passwords and teach your employees to do the same. Make sure that the passwords are as random as they can be, and they will get changed regularly. You can also use Two-Factor Authentication (2FA) where it’s possible, particularly on systems that are facing the internet.

– Back up data as frequently as you can
Make sure you have implemented strong back-up policies and store your back-ups in multiple locations (on-line and off-line mostly). Test regularly that these back-ups are made correctly and according to your schedule.

– Limit privileges and monitor the users
The employees should have access to the information they need to do their jobs. Monitor their activity and limit the privileges as much as you can.

2. Developing an exit strategy

According to PMI’s Pulse of the Profession study, poor requirements management is the second most common reason for project failure. In addition, 87% of the surveyed organizations recognized that improvement is needed. Nevertheless, as important as requirements management is, the study also found that:

• Only 49% of the organizations have the resources in place to do requirements management properly.
• Only one-third of the organizations’ leaders value requirements management as a critical competency.
• Only 47% of the organizations have a formal process to validate requirements.
• 51% of the projects’ and programs’ budgets are wasted due to poor requirements management.
• 47% of the unmet project goals were due to poor requirements management.

The “exit strategy” is the plan that clarifies how the project will end or transform (e.g., once goals have been achieved, or at the end of the project or funding cycle), or that provides for the withdrawal of participants. Fostering sustainability and mitigating risks of failure lie at the heart of this strategy. It needs to be designed jointly from the onset and revisited regularly as the initiative evolves.

Unforeseen exits

The project may not fully achieve the expected outcome, and a situation may arise that prompts a participant wanting to exit or terminate prematurely. Typical reasons include:

• End of available funding
• Reduction or withdrawal of resources at the project’s level or at the participant ’s level
• Initiative failure, i.e., the project fails to meet non-negotiable expectations of some participants in terms of performance, accountability, values etc.
• Participant failure, e.g., non-performance, lack of compliance with agreed code of conduct
• Conflicts between participants
• Changing priorities of participant(s)
• Changing context, including environmental, political or economic shifts or crises

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