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Showing posts from May, 2009

Something you can try on your next fixed bid project

Depending on your company’s commitment to agile principals you might find yourself on a classic fixed bid project. A while back, at a previous employer, I found myself in just such a position. Usually fixed bid suggests a strict command and control with a Big Upfront Design approach to the project and architecture. Despite these circumstances we wanted to value embracing change over contract negotiations and run the project using agile practices. We presented the scope such that the customer "bought" a fixed number of story points per iteration that they could spend however they chose. With that “guiding principle” we ready to start the project. [Predictably in inception the customer applied all points to all iterations.] From my experience establishing trust between consulting company and customer is key to be successful in this situation. Once its established, contracts almost don't matter anymore. The interesting part is always, “How can we get the customer the