Agile Contracts: Creating and Managing Successful Projects with Scrum

Agile Contracts: Creating and Managing Successful Projects with Scrum (Wiley Series in Systems Engineering and Management)

A methodologically sophisticated, comprehensive approach to applying the Agile fixed-price contract to IT projects while maximizing customer and supplier relationships

“Interesting and necessary for IT managers and IT lawyers.”
—Walter J. Jaburek, Dipl.-Ing., Dr. iur., Dr. techn.

Approximately 50 percent of software developers use Scrum, an iterative and incremental development method for managing software projects and product or application development, in their work. The benefit of Scrum and other Agile methods is that they can address shifts in a large project that traditional managerial methods cannot.

Written by pioneers and leaders in the field of Agile and Scrum, Agile Contracts is the only book dedicated exclusively to the legal, procurement, and project management considerations of Agile contracts. Providing templates, a toolbox, and examples of Agile fixed-price contracts, the book presents an alternative option to fixed-price, time-based, and supply-based contracts—reducing the risk for both the supplier and the customer with a contract that offers the possibility of flux and flexible scenarios as a project progresses.

Agile Contracts features in-depth chapter coverage of:

• The Agile Manifesto of 2001
• Agility from the perspective of procurement and the software provider
• The problems with traditional fixed-price contracts and time material contracts
• What the Agile fixed-price contract is and how it is set up
• Tendering based on the Agile fixed-price contract
• How to negotiate an Agile fixed-price contract
• Special guidelines for the legal framework of an Agile fixed-price contract
• Adaptable Scope System
• The Black Swan scenario
• Contracts and procedures for the featured methodologies

Especially applicable within highly structured business organizations, Agile Contracts is a must-read for project managers, agile practitioners, procurement representatives, and IT lawyers.

Table of Contents

1. Agility: What Is That? 1
2. The Missing Piece of the Puzzle 33
3. What Is an Agile Fixed-Price Contract? 47
4. Sample of an Agile Fixed-Price Contract 73
5. Tendering Based on an Agile Fixed-Price Contract 109
6. Special Requirements for the Legal Framework of an Agile Fixed-Price Contract 137
7. Guideline for the Negotiation of an Agile Fixed-Price Contract 145
8. Advantages and Disadvantages of Agile Fixed-Price Contracts 157
9. Toolbox for Agile Fixed-Price Contracts 185
10. Practical Examples 199
Appendix: Questions and Answers 271