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Rules of Engagement

  • We'll ask you for a high-level list of features you'd like to see us build, and the date you need your first release.
  • We'll ask you to rank that list in priority order: most valuable features first.
  • We'll give you a good-faith estimate of how many of those features we think we can deliver by that date, and we'll absolutely guarantee you'll get working tested software that includes your highest-priority features on that date.
  • We'll work through your list in priority order, asking you for additional details along the way.
  • We'll give you working software at regular intervals . You'll pay for each chunk you get when you get it.
  • You can change priorities for features we haven't started on yet, but we ask that you only do that to future iterations, not to work in progress.
  • If you discover you've forgotten to include a critical feature in your initial list, just insert it into its appropriate rank position in the list. Usually this means one or two of your low- priority features will fall off the list.
  • Sometimes your idea of a feature is bigger than what we were thinking of. We're confident we can deliver close to your list of features by your date, but if you have very specific needs around some features, they may take more time than expected. We’ll still meet the release date, but we may need to delay work on some of the low-priority features. We’ll work with you to figure out whether there’s a simpler version of features that might meet your needs. Of course, sometimes features will be easier than we thought, too. We'll work with you continually to make sure you get the most important features by your date.
  • If you discover before your release date that we've given you all the features you need, you can cancel future work and release what you have .
  • If you need more features after your release date, you can request that we keep working on your list, one iteration at a time.
  • Because we're working with you throughout to make sure we're building the software you need, we'll need you to be accessible to answer questions throughout, at least by phone.
  • In our approach, we deliver software to you every iteration. Each delivery is an opportunity for you to fire us if you think we’re not performing to your expectations. Contrast this with an up-front contract, where you don’t know the value of the software until we deliver everything to you at the end.
  • Parts of these Rules of Engagement are used with permission and thanks to Alix Pukinskis at Rally Software, under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported license.

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