Dear Technetters,

In my company's desire to save costs, the decision was made to lay off
our own PCB designer and contract PCB design services to external design
firms.  So far, it's working, but not as well as we had hoped.  The
engineering staff realizes that when you dump an amazingly capable
designer willing to work all-nighters and weekends without even being
asked, something is lost, but Sr. Management does not.

1. I'm being asked to provide a set of standard terms and conditions for
such arrangements.  Do any of you who use or provide contract PCB design
services have a standard agreement you use?  

2. Next, if when using a contract house and you discover they're not the
right ones for that particular design for some reason, and mutually
choose to move it to a more specialized firm, do you simply not pay
anything to the original firm, even though they did build libraries and
do placement and original routing, or do you negotiate a fee for time
spent to date?  

I contend that these are services similar to what you receive at a
doctor or dentist who "practice" their arts using learned skills and
that it's simply not an exact science.  Am I wrong here?

Bob Croslin
The Nielsen Company

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