Misconception: Agile contracts can’t have scope or quality clause
How do we include the scope in our Agile Contracts
“Because Agile welcomes change, you cannot put a scope or quality clause in an Agile contract.”
Because of the following reasons:
Early Agile literature contrasted responding to change with “signing a fixed-scope, fixed-price contract”
Lawyers equate “scope clause” with a hard list of requirements frozen at contract signature
Teams fear that any contractual quality wording will turn every bug into a penalty discussion rather than an opportunity for improvement
Those fears are real.
But…
They’re aimed at the wrong target. Agile eliminates premature rigidity, not clear expectations.
Done right, an Agile contract can (and usually should) describe:
what business objectives will be achieved (outcome-level scope)
how much flexibility do the parties have to trade features for value (change control)
what quality bar every increment must clear (Definition of Done, NFRs, SLAs, regulatory rules)
In today’s post, I'll share some approaches I've seen some highly successful teams use to integrate scope and quality into their Agile contracts.
Let’s get started.
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