>>>I hear what your saying. My first job out of college (even before) was for a software company that produced Project Management software. One of the owners said that even if he could produce bug free software he won't. How would the customers know the value of their maintenance contract if they never called for support. That company, at that time, only had developer testing. It took a couple of years to development testing guidelines and procedures. After that, there were less than 100 known bugs in a system where the prg source code was about a meg in size (they didn't bother to document the source code much).
>>>
>>
>>For large scale development, a testing group, IMHO, is essential. It's relatively easy for programmers to do lower level testing. But, testing against the analysis (if there was one done!) or the understood business process is just a stretch for most programmers. Testers are advocates for accuracy and usability. They save me pain down the road!
>>
>>With the investment that you're making with this group, I think it's perfectly reasonable to ask for various deliverables, such as analysis, testing design, a project plan and weekly/monthly status updates on that. The situation raises the risk flags -- and to me, the biggest risk is that if that information is accurate, will the project ever be completed?
>>
>>Best wishes.
>>
>> Jay
>
>
>The project will be complete when they have used up our budget. We are a nonprofit company with a specific not to exceed budget. Someone told the consulting company what the budget was so the consulting company knows how much they can get out of us.

Nothing to do about spilt milk. A deliverable will make all the difference. I'd get my documentation ready, though, in case legal recourse is appropriate.

Jay