Valuing Agile

2 Requirements, estimation and contracting

Any project needs to be clear about what it is to achieve, how much it will cost and when it will be delivered. Requirements and their estimates are therefore the key ingredients of a common understanding between customer and supplier irrespective of how their working relationship is regulated. While the Agile Manifesto prefers customer collaboration to contract negotiation it nonetheless acknowledges that contract negotiation is important. Accordingly, a contract, whether formal or informal, must express the mutuality of obligation between customer and supplier upon which all working arrangements are based (e.g. a willingness to engage in the Agile process and recognition of the learning involved in ...