A sign of the IT company's professionalism is the use of the Agile methodology in project management. And not for nothing, since this methodology has proven its effectiveness quite a long time ago.
However, will it be possible to adhere to the flexibility provided by Agile, which provides for the possibility of effective and operational interaction of the parties to the contract, the possibility of making changes both to contracts and to technical tasks during the execution of state or utility orders.
The main problem in such economic relations is the bureaucratic restrictions imposed on the customer. The lack of opportunity to make changes to the terms of contracts (since their terms are regulated by the provisions of by-laws and legislative acts), technical documentation, cost, terms, stages, functionality - all these are non-changeable conditions that directly conflict with the main principles and values of Agile.
What IT companies who still want to earn by providing their services to government organizations need to know:
• the customer completely dictates all the terms of the contract before its conclusion, it will not be possible to adjust or agree after it is signed (except for the cases already provided for by the Criminal Code of Ukraine);
• when accepting the completed works, the priority of the customer's representative is first and foremost the formal fulfillment of the terms of the contract;
Under such conditions, in almost all cases when performing such projects, Agile can be applied only to the company's internal IT processes, but in no case to interaction with the customer. And the main recommendation: the team should have a qualified lawyer to monitor the implementation of the letter of the contract, not its spirit, because you can not only be left without payment, but also get fined.
Ihor Shein, attorney at Dynasty Law & Investment
