Software Engineering Institute

An increasing number of organizations are organizations are contracting with outside companies for the installation and maintenance of their information technology (IT). All too often, these organizations experience increased difficulty in providing appropriate oversight of the services and software for which they have contracted. For example, contractor access to the organization's systems is often neither well-controlled nor secure, placing information systems and data at risk. The practices recommended in this document are designed to assist your organization in managing the contractor, managing the contract, and deterring common, known security problems when IT services and software are externally contracted.