The proper application of information technology (IT) can provide critical support in meeting an organization’s mission, and in some cases, is the only means to do so. Organizations allocate a great deal of their resources to IT projects to effectively and efficiently meet their goals. The US federal IT budget for 2014 is $82 billion, representing hundreds of IT projects. The return on investment in IT can only be realized when IT projects are successful. Gartner has estimated that as many as 28 percent of large IT projects are unsuccessful. Specifically, they are not delivered on time, do not stay within budget, or fail to provide the required functionality. This book describes agile contracting in support of Scrum as a means to significantly improve IT project success.

Agile contracting represents a significant paradigm shift, especially for IT acquisition specialists, contracting officers, legal advisers, IT project managers, and capital investment analysts. All of these groups of stakeholders need to understand the key differences of agile contracting that must be addressed.

The authors of this book provide detailed guidance on how to tender an agile contract that supports the application of the Scrum method to the development aspects of an IT project. The book contains ten chapters. The reader will find many practical takeaways, such as a list of the 12 principles of agile software development and a discussion of the behavioral context from the view of key stakeholders, including the customer, service provider, and the Scrum team members. Overall, the book amounts to a set of standalone documents or technical papers that have been aggregated into a single book, which can somewhat compromise flow and continuity. Despite this modest shortcoming, the book provides two detailed examples of agile contracts, a chapter on agile contracting tools, legal aspects of agile contracting, and tendering an agile offer. The authors have provided numerous references, an index, and a section of frequently asked questions. Given the cross-functional readership, I believe a glossary would have helped to provide additional clarity.

There are two aspects of the book that can be seen as strengths as well as weaknesses. First, the authors relate agile development solely with Scrum. Although Scrum is widely used, it is only one of many agile approaches. If readers are specifically interested in using Scrum as a development methodology and using agile contracting to support that approach, they will find this book well suited to their needs. Second, the authors focus on firm fixed price (FFP) approaches, time and materials (T&M) approaches, and a hybrid of the two contracting types. There are many types of contracts with various advantages listed in the Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR), specifically FAR Part 16, Types of Contracts and FAR Part 39.103, Modular Contracting. There are several ways in which organizations can structure their acquisition strategies to effectively support agile or modular development. These include indefinite-delivery indefinite-quality (IDIQ) contracts, a single contract with options, successive contracts, and performance-based work statements. Each type of contract has benefits and limitations unique to modular development. If the reader is specifically focusing on FFP and T&M or labor hours contracts and hybrid variations between the types, this book provides excellent detail and examples. It does not provide exhaustive or representative coverage of all contract types and options to support agile development.

The book is timely in light of the current federal government IT reform efforts. Although the Agile Manifesto was published in 2001, industry and government have been slow to adopt agile contracting practices and the associated risks of innovation and change in the organization. There is no legal or regulatory reason not to apply agile contracting methods. FAR Part 1.102-4(e) provides guidance to encourage such innovative practices:

If a policy or procedure, or a particular strategy or practice, is in the best interest of the government and is not specifically addressed in the FAR, nor prohibited by law (statute or case law), executive order or other regulation, government members of the team should not assume it is prohibited. Rather, absence of direction should be interpreted as permitting the team to innovate and use sound business judgment that is otherwise consistent with law and within the limits of their authority. Contracting officers should take the lead in encouraging business process innovations and ensuring that business decisions are sound.

Given what FAR says so eloquently and the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and Office of Federal Procurement Policy have reaffirmed, it is not surprising that on June 14, 2012, the OMB provided a 25-page memorandum providing guidance to support modular development that specifically addressed the practices and issues raised here. I recommend this book to all members of any integrated product team tasked with IT acquisition and contracting.

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