[wglb]

There are various kinds of contractual engagements that I have run across or heard of in my lifetimes in this business.

  * SOW-focused engagements
  * Long-term cost-plus engagements
  * Staff-augmentation engagements
  * Temporary staff

Where the last two are quite similar. In the Chicagoland area, at least, there were the often long-term Temporary Staff (where temporary could be a multiple of years) where the organization did not yet have the know-how to staff up full time folks. Also common in the run-up to Y2K were everyone was in full-blown panic. At one time, there were over 200 organizations supplying the Chicago BigCo set with bodies for this.

Staff-augmentation requirements are where an existing organization is trying to internally grow a particular segment of expertise.

I suspect that the kind of engagement you are describing here is of the long-term cost-plus kind of engagement with some very large project.

What I call the SOW-focused engagements are of the kind "Pen-Test this application" or "build out the following functionality in my BFE accounting application according to the attached 900 page document" or "build me an identity service with the following security requirements".

The long-term cost-plus engagements are of the sort requiring a multi-year sales cycle. SOW-focused agreements, once a master is in place, are often just a matter of a phone call to set them up, plus scheduling.