Money for Nothing and Your Change for Free: Agile Contracts
Sat, 2007-12-08 20:06 — Jeff Sutherland 
Working with leading consultancies in Europe, Russia, and the U.S. has generated interest in basing entire company strategies on Agile contracting and delivering software products and projects. The “Money for Nothing” strategy works when customers want fixed price estimates for the entire contract up front. The Agile contract allows termination of the contract early when the value of features drops below an ROI criteria. The contract allows the customer to save 80% of their remaining funds by giving the Agile vendor 20% of the remaining contract value in return driving the margins of an Agile contractor from 15-20% up to 50-80%.
Process/Mechanics
The session will:
- Train participants on how to develop a more effective Agile business strategy.
- It will show them how to create options in standard contracts that clear the way for Agile development.
- The way to terminate projects early to save money for the customer and increase margins for the vendor will be carefully described.
- The way to improve the development environment to encourage a “brain drain” from waterfall companies into Agile companies will be reviewed.
- Some individuals and companies after experiencing this presentation have radically altered their business strategies. Their resulting rapid growth in size and profitability will be used as case studies in the presentation.