THERE’S NO SUCH THING AS AN AGILE CONTRACTAgile Slovenia 2014

Dušan Omerčević, VP of Product Development@dusanohttp://restreaming.me

We’ve become agile but our customers have not; how can we make our customers more agile?

We can’t do much; we are bound by the terms of contract.

Agile contract

Agenda

1. What is contract?2. What is “agile contract” unicorn supposed to be?3. Three example contracts4. Surviving without unicorns

An agreement creating obligations enforceable by law.

http://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/contract

Why contracts?

• A way for customer and vendor to discuss the common goal.

• Agreement drafting is taken much more serious if law is involved.

• Insurance policy against many things that commonly go wrong

• Save your ass document

Essential elements of a contract

• What• When• Price

Essential elements of a contract

• What• When• Price

Agile contract unicorn is a dream that only two elements of a contract can be specified, while either time, price, or scope can be left out.

Traffic Management System

Total project value:5M euro

Our part: Control Software

• price: ~100K EUR• time: August ‘04 to January ‘05• scope: detailed functional specifications

Yellow pages/Firma.si

Vendor point of view

• price: standard hourly rate• time: January to July ‘09• scope: 3000 hours

“Time and materials” contract

Our point of view

• price: ~150,00 EUR• time: January to July ‘09• scope: yellow pages with user reviews and

feedback

“fixed-everything” contract

Zemanta reporting dashboard

Project plan

• price: 7 engineers• time: May to July 2015• scope: reports aggregation, reporting dashboard,

basic campaign management

internal, but still “fixed-everything” contract(enforced/sanctioned by CEO)

Surviving without unicorns

1. Understand customer’s internal politics

Surviving without unicorns

1. Understand customer’s internal politics2. Put buffers in place when planning

Surviving without unicorns

1. Understand customer’s internal politics2. Put buffers in place when planning3. Concentrate on scope

Surviving without unicorns

1. Understand customer’s internal politics2. Put buffers in place when planning3. Concentrate on scope4. Don’t compromise on quality

Surviving without unicorns

1. Understand customer’s internal politics2. Put buffers in place when planning3. Concentrate on scope4. Don’t compromise on quality5. Good personal relationships go a long way

Agile elements of a standard contract

• milestones• change requests• early termination clauses

Conclusions

• Contracts are grounded in legal system• If both parties agree, contracts can be changed at

will• If parties disagree, contract must be specific

enough for a judge to rule on the obligations• Good project managers were agile long before it

was cool

HVALA!

Dušan Omerčević, VP of Product Development@dusanohttp://restreaming.me

Photo credits

Unicorn - https://www.flickr.com/photos/vblibrary/8472794574/