We negotiated the following statement of work via a verbal contract. Formal documentation of this contract was completed post-implementation.
Statement of Work
- Purpose - The consultancy will design and construct a snowman.
- Location of Work - The snowman itself will be constructed and housed upon the lot of the residence of the client. Given that there were three possible locations on this lot, the specific location was deferred until later in the process with the requirement that the location be street-visible.
- Development Schedule - Design would begin immediately following contract negotiation on Sunday, March 21st, 2013 at 1pm CDT. Development hours would be constrained to daylight hours (approximately 7am to 6pm).
- Deliverables Schedule - The snowman construction would conclude before nightfall that day, Sunday, March 21st, 2013 (approximately 6pm CDT). The consultancy and client negotiated a contingency plan to manage risks. If either construction or design experienced any setbacks, then construction could be completed by early morning the following day, Monday, March 22nd, 2013 with the following clauses.
- Client's school must be cancelled on account of inclement weather.
- Consultancy's prior engagements could be deferred for a period of 8 hours.
- Governance - The consultancy proposed since there was no formal snowman construction governance model known; given the short timeframe, no governance model was going to be observed or implemented.
- Acceptance Criteria - The client and consultancy negotiated the following:
- The character could be reasonably constructed as conforming to the appearance of a typical snowman by client's peers.
- The snowman would be a free-standing character requiring no external support system.
- Should inclement weather preclude client from judging the Acceptance Criteria, the judgement would be deferred to the following day.
- Special Requirements - The consultancy mandates that the design and construction of the snowman would follow standard Agile methodologies.
- Payment Schedule - Upon satisfactory itemization and review of the afore-mentioned deliverables and acceptance criteria, the client would agree to clean his room.
With the statement of work formalized by a verbal contract, we began iteration 1. It was understood by the consultancy that there was one fundamental flaw with this statement of work. That is, the client was not capable of fully understanding the Special Requirement of following Agile methodologies due to the client's age of 7 years. This would be an opportunity for an Agile introduction.
Kickoff
To review, the Agile Manifesto identifies 4 values:
- Individuals and interactions over processes and tools
- Working software over comprehensive documentation
- Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
- Responding to change over following a plan
The client agreed to one of the most fundamental practices to a successful Agile project. That is, the client would be imbedded in the project. The client provided both feedback and assistance where applicable. We would attempt to adhere to Agile values wherever possible by acknowledging 12 principles.
- Customer satisfaction by rapid delivery of useful software
- Welcome changing requirements, even late in development
- Working software is delivered frequently (weeks rather than months)
- Working software is the principal measure of progress
- Sustainable development, able to maintain a constant pace
- Close, daily cooperation between business people and developers
- Face-to-face conversation is the best form of communication (co-location)
- Projects are built around motivated individuals, who should be trusted
- Continuous attention to technical excellence and good design
- Simplicity—the art of maximizing the amount of work not done—is essential
- Self-organizing teams
- Regular adaptation to changing circumstances
- Product developed within short period of time and processed back in iterative
With the SOW negotiated, we began our work. To be continued...
