I worked with a large financial institution in the Southeast that suffered serious financial losses several years ago.  
A new CEO was brought in to change the organization's strategy to be more "customer-focused." The new 
direction was quite innovative, and it was determined that custom systems, including a data warehouse, 
had to be built to support the new strategic efforts. The problem was that the company did not have the 
skills for this type of personalized projects.

The company now has one of the most successful data warehouse implementations due to its willingness 
to use external skills and its focus on project management. To complement skills within the company, 
eight sets of external consultants, including hardware vendors, systems integrators, and business strategists, 
were hired to participate and transfer critical skills to internal employees. An internal project manager coordinated 
the full-time data warehouse implementation, and his primary goals were to set clear expectations and define 
responsibilities and communicate the interdependencies that existed between team members.

This company proves that successful custom development can be achieved, even when the company doesn't
start with the right skills in-house. But this type of project is not easy to carry out, it takes a talented project
manager to keep the project going and transition the skills to the right people over time.

1. What are the risks of building a custom system without proper technical expertise?
2. Why did the company select a project manager from within the organization?
3. Would it have been better to hire an external professional project manager to coordinate the project?