Is Fixed-Price Software Development Unethical? Agile Contracts Require Trust. Contracts are the seam that tie together different organizations.
Traditional contracts are based on mistrust and a CYA philosophy. Fixed price contracts don't take into consider the uncertainty of software development. Time-for-money projects are not based on value delivered - a team can work for a long time, burn many hours, and not have much to show for. Ag. Traditional project contracts are not very agile, yet we often find contracts are a part of the not so ideal real world.
While the 3rd line of the agile manifesto states “Customer collaboration over contract negotiation” it is sometimes difficult to convince all the external stakeholders and powers-that-be of this wisdom. The next Calgary ALPN meeting on Monday will feature Gerard Meszaros from ClearStream Consulting talking on “Are Fixed Price and Agile Mutually Exclusive?” This should be a good talk, I have known Gerard for 4-5 years and he always has a compelling message; backed up by a wealth of experience and a deep knowledge of agile methods. If you are in the Calgary region on Monday lunch time, come along and hear Gerard’s presentation. The DSDM Consortium developed a sample agile contract a number of years ago.