ISPL Fundamentals

The following fundamentals of ISPL help to understand the basic philosophy of contractual relationships between customers and suppliers.         Situation driven planning  The planning of a service delivery is situation dependent. Each situation is appreciated using a list of situational factors. Complexity and uncertainty are determined. Risks are identified, and their probability and impact are assessed. ISPL offers guidance to define actions to mitigate the critical risks and to formulate a delivery strategy which is tuned to the situation at hand. Furthermore, ISPL offers several options for the acquisition strategy and it offers guidance for the acquisition planning.         Emphasis on decision points   The delivery plan in the technical annex of a contract emphasises decision points. Decision points constitute contractual interactions between customer and supplier, where the customer, possibly together with the supplier, is making decisions on the service. Each deliverable must be related to a decision point and must support the decisions to be taken. This approach improves the effectiveness of the production process.         Emphasis on deliverables    For the delivery of projects, ISPL emphasises the deliverables rather than the activities which lead to those deliverables. It prescribes what should be produced. It does not prescribe how realisation of the deliverables should take place.