I don't have a sample contract. The times I've worked this way the contracts have been verbal, not written.
There were some comments about what to call these contracts. One analogy I found with the help of Greg Betty at Intelliware is "target costing". Target cost product development starts with a target cost (a $400 digital camera, for example). From that you can figure out how much you can pay to manufacture the product. The goal is to pack as much functionality as possible into the product given the price, either by reducing the cost of components or the cost of assembly. This process is called value engineering. I think Bill Wake's ideas about unbundling point to an effective way to do this in software development. You could write a target cost software development contract by specifying how much the contract would cost, along with the quality levels/practices and the process for choosing scope. The difference between fixed cost and target cost is that fixed cost contracts imply that the scope is fixed, while target cost contracts explicitly float the scope. One thing I like about target cost is that choosing scope is a value-added activity where choosing scope in fixed cost contracts is a transaction cost (the principle of opportunity at work). Kent Beck Three Rivers Institute -----Original Message----- From: Israel Antezana [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Tuesday, December 28, 2004 7:11 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: [XP] Optional Scope Contract Samples Well, you are lucky if you dont nee to sign contracts, in my context that is very difficult to do. Even to propose copmanys to make another kind of contract than the traditional fixed scope and cost, that's why I am interested if someone could provide us a sample of a variable scope contract, maybe Kent has one since he has written an article about it. Best Regards, Israel Antezana Ron Jeffries <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: On Monday, December 27, 2004, at 8:02:02 AM, Israel Antezana wrote: > I have read Kent�s article about optional scope contracts, but > the question is how do you express it on a > legal contract?. Do you have a sample optional scope contract > that you could share with us?. When a customer > wants to hire you, do you sign this kind of contract? No, sorry, I do not have one, nor do I use contracts in my work. Ron Jeffries www.XProgramming.com Example isn't another way to teach, it is the only way to teach. --Albert Einstein To Post a message, send it to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To Unsubscribe, send a blank message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ad-free courtesy of objectmentor.com Yahoo! Groups Links --------------------------------- Do You Yahoo!? Todo lo que quieres saber de Estados Unidos, Am�rica Latina y el resto del Mundo. Vis�ta Yahoo! Noticias. [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] To Post a message, send it to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To Unsubscribe, send a blank message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ad-free courtesy of objectmentor.com Yahoo! Groups Links To Post a message, send it to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To Unsubscribe, send a blank message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ad-free courtesy of objectmentor.com Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/extremeprogramming/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
