The phrase “government shutdown” makes contracting officers shudder—and for good reason.

Since the first U.S. government shutdown in 1981, shutdowns have occurred an average of every four years, making them an unpleasant feature of government work. Since public sector IT projects take an average of 3.9 years to complete, there’s a high chance that any team working on an IT project within the federal government will experience a shutdown that will threaten the project’s timeline and budget.

In addition to slowing down the project itself, shutdowns also deeply impact contractors who have dedicated resources and employees to agency projects. Government contractors employ an estimated 19 million people across an estimated 19,000 companies whose livelihood depends on the continuity of their work. And unlike government employees, contractors are not guaranteed back pay once a furlough ends. Luckily, there are ways to mitigate a shutdown’s impact on your project, its objectives, and your contractors.

In our decades of work with the federal government, Enquizit has identified several tactics to “shutdown-proof” your IT project. Our recent e-book, Surviving a Shutdown, explores five ways agencies can help contractors by planning ahead. These strategies include:

Begin shutdown-proofing your project in the RFP stage: Understand what types of work are minimally impacted during a government shutdown and define and justify your project appropriately.
Budget the project at a fixed cost: With fixed pricing, contractors are paid based on the project being delivered in a set period of time. Variable costs and timeframes that could be impacted by a shutdown do not come into play.
Build out the project’s scope into short increments: Map out the stages of the project during the RFP process so that if a shutdown occurs, contractors are empowered to continue on their own.
Organize access to project resources for contractors: Learn how to use the cloud to provide contractors access to their projects without a government intermediary.
Develop a shutdown continuity plan: Shutdowns are more likely to occur at the beginning of the federal government’s fiscal year. Start planning 45 days before to safeguard your project.

Our e-book describes the specific tools we recommend to help you implement these strategies, like a federally compliant code repository and a shutdown decision tree. With our guidance, you can feel confident in your ability to ensure IT projects are delivered on schedule—while also keeping your contractors on-task and paid.

Download our e-book to learn more about how your mission-critical projects can survive a shutdown.

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