As part of the IRON Project, electron impact excitation eective collision strengths are computed for the ion Fe xvi familiar in solar spectra. A Breit{Pauli R- matrix calculation is performed with a 12-level (n 4) target representation. The calculation for this relatively simple ion is approached as a test case where we can an- alyze in detail most of the eects that contribute to the accuracy of the collision strengths: the energy mesh, rel- ativistic corrections, the asymptotic multipole potentials and contributions from high partial waves. By compar- ing with two recent independent calculations, an accu- racy rating of 10% is assigned to the present eective collision strengths in the electron-temperature range of 10 5 T=K 10 7 .