You Want It When?

So this new contract we got wants its own separate Configuration Management Plan. Okay, fine.

My boss wants me to write it -- to take our usual blanket CMP and pretty it up for this contract in particular. Okay, fine. When's it due?

Well, that's the question.

Usually, a government Statement of Work includes due-dates based on the date the contract was awarded. "CA+30 days" -- like that. Unless specified otherwise, we generally interpret "days" as "business days" rather than "calendar days". So the guy who's rounding up the initial spate of documents told me it's due November 11. Okay, fine.

This morning, I got to work to find a flurry of emails. The manager sent out his calculated due dates so some other folks could double-check him, and what he put in the email was Calendar Days. Which means that either he typed "calendar" when he meant to type "working", or else his calculation was based on a wrong assumption, and the CMP would in fact be due on October 30. Ulp.

And then I was talking with another manager while I was getting my coffee, and he muddied the waters further: Our award date is six days later than originally assumed, so maybe the CMP is due on November 5. But the SoW actually says the CMP is due thirty days after, not the Contract Award date, but our receipt of the Notice To Proceed. (Which is something the government sends you when they've agreed to a contract and want you to start working even though the legal paperwork is still tied up in the contracts department.) Which we didn't get for this contract.

So I have no idea when this document is due. Might be in two days, might be in a week, might be in two weeks. And why am I writing a CMP, anyway, when we have an entire Configuration Management staff?

Probably because, when faced with an unknown due date (possibly as little as two days from now) and a 30-40 page document to throw together, my boss can count on me to say: Okay, fine.