Sebastian Botis 21 September 2012
AROBS
Agenda:
Traditional Contracts Change Orders Timing
Ranges and Changes Model ―First Eye-Contact‖ Contract or Discovery
Contract ―Goodies contract‖ or Delivery Contract
Keys to success
Customer availability Duration for acceptance Prioritization commitment Termination clauses AROBS
Traditional Contracts – General Workflow
Companies / customers publish or send a request for a proposal. In most cases, the requests will not be in a prioritized order — it all needs to be done There is a short question and answer period where you, the contractor, can ask detailed questions, flush out assumptions, and attempt to discover the budget Your final proposal will come in, as close as possible, to the lower end of the budget, or if you don’t know the budget, lower than what you think your competitors would submit, and you put in everything the customers think they want Your proposal might include your change order process AROBS
Traditional Contracts – Change Orders
They are absolutely necessary in the traditional contracts Without them, most company will go out of business
good change order Small changes can become a staggering cost for the vendor good change order
Detailed change orders are required because: They insure some sort of accuracy Even if they degrade trust in vendor, customers will
change their mind very often The vendors are taking all the risks
This is not the only reason for struggling with the customers We are also handicapped by time! AROBS
Traditional Contracts - Timing
Customers ask for dates, costs, and commitments right from the start Vendors ask customers
for exactly what they want Customers ask for a guaranteed set of functionalities, a certain cost and by a certain time-line AROBS
Range and Changes Model - Overview Share certain features with ―Money for Nothing‖ and ―Change for free‖ Traditional software project contracts are made up of things like milestones, the description of work, project goals and objectives, deployment schedules, and warranties These items may live in Range and Changes Contract Model
AROBS
Range and Changes Model - Content
Covered by two different types of contracts ―First eye-contact‖ contract or Discovery
Contract ○ Ascertain the ranges
○ Determine cost and timeline
―Goodies contract‖ or Delivery / Project
contract ○ Change clauses AROBS
“First eye-contact”– Ascertain the ranges
Characteristics Covered by a fixed fee Fixed length
Only one goal – building the product backlog
Steps to build the PB Identify user types or subjects of the system
Write user stories Estimate the stories AROBS
“First eye contact” – Determine Cost & Timeline
Steps to be performed Determine Team Velocity ○ See story points or ideal days Calculate Cost per Sprint ○ See the cost per story point or time & material Build a Release Plan ○ See velocity, budget and PB functionalities Established Payment Options ○ Pay by sprint, story point, group of sprints or even time & material AROBS
“Goodies contract” or Delivery/Project contract
Inputs:
Set of user personas; Estimated Product backlog Release Plan Project Contract ○ References the estimated PB; ○ References the preliminary Release Plan ○ Guarantees a range of points each sprint for a
certain cost ○ Includes Definition of Done ○ Includes Change Clauses AROBS
“Goodies contract” – Change Clauses
Characteristics Allow reshuffle of the work in
Product Backlog Add new stories – but maintain the same amount of work (same total SP’s) Termination clause ○ Money for Nothing, Change for Free
AROBS
Keys to success
Customer availability Commitment for being available certain hours
Duration for acceptance The amount of time the customer has to accept the
functionality delivered in sprint
Prioritization Unlike a traditional RFP, a product backlog must be
groomed regularly prioritized and estimated Contract includes the time needed for estimating new stories, breaking down large stories, helping the customers determine any shifts in priorities
Termination clause Money for Nothing AROBS
Thank you!
References:
Cohn, Mike. 2004 – "User Stories Applied” Lacey, Mitch 2012 - ―The Scrum Field Guide” Sutherland, Jeff - “Agile 2008: Money for Nothing” AROBS