Most of the Agile work that I am involved in is done using one of two vehicles;

1 – Fixed Price / Fixed Scope
2 – Time and Materials

I would love to see our clients move to something like a price per user story point, with collaboration. Remember, as you move through the cycles you re-estimate and the value of stories changes. How you capture this in a formal contract that all parties are happy with is something that I will leave to the lawyers, and good luck to them.

I guess the solution is, the contract can only take you so far. What is key is the relationship, trust and level of collaboration between all parties to ensure the right outcome; business value for the client and their customers and profit for the supplier. Perhaps I am too naive?

Ingenious.

Now I KNOW I’m always going to have some trouble with 3 and 4 (as a developer), and I’m pretty sure that 1 and 2 are shaky too. I think Cockburn also points out that the people on the project are first-order variables in its success – this to me means that the methodology we choose should fit the people available rather than the other way around – especially if we have smart people. While I’m aware that there are project managers around that can successfully build space shuttles, the likelihood that they are available and affordable to most software projects is slim. So rather than try to change the way the people you DO have work, why not cut the methodology to fit? In my experience this will USUALLY result in some aspect of Agile being most effective.