Category: trust

Economical trust

June 2, 2008 by Artem

Upfront planning

Last weeks I spent huge amount of time negotiating with the renovation company about the details of our upcoming bathroom renovation. You know, all this bargaining, market research and choosing between a multitude of option takes time. To make things even more complicated our house manager happened to be very peculiar about what he can allow to be changed - it triggered yet another round of negotiations and renegotiations even though we signed the contract already.

The biggest problem is that there is a decent element of uncertainty. Some technical decision can be made only after they start works and break the walls. Therefore we have to nail down plan B and plan C well in advance not to be offered a bill with the "additional costs" after the fact.

XP Values: Honesty

December 17, 2007 by jeremy

"Honesty is the best policy — when there is money in it."
- Mark Twain

XP requires constant communication between team members. More specifically, XP and Agile teams depend on honest communication between stakeholders, including developers, testers, managers, and customers.

We expect manufacturers and vendors to be honest to us about the products and services they offer and market to us. Our customers expect the same. Honesty is especially crucial during iterative development where a minor course correction early in the schedule can save significant time down the road.

How to use agile methods for the fixed price contracts

November 30, 2007 by Artem

Agile software development methodologies discourage the use of the fixed price contracts. When forced to commit to the fixed price, agile approaches advocate unfixing the project scope. However, even if it is impossible, there are still ways to realize the benefits of agile methods.

Poorly predictable complexities

Sydney opera house, a beautiful piece of art, the Sydney's best known landmark and international symbol was started as a fixed-price, fixed-date project. Unfortunately, since it was no standard building time, it was impossible to estimate all the difficulties and complexities in advance. As a result, it took 13 years and 102 million Australian dollars to build instead of 3 year and 7 million estimated - 330% time overrun and 1350% costs overrun!