This is a presentation I made for a company that was going Agile, but had issues about handling the contract negotiation with suppliers in project.

1. @MartinVinther
Agile projects and
suppliers

2. Who am I?
Martin Nymann Vinther
• Project Manager on 12.
year
• Consultant at Danske
Bank for 5 years
• Using Agile methods
• Small - big projects

3. Agile projects and
supplier
management
• In agile projects we want to be able to
change plans and priorities all the
time...
• Suppliers wants to have plans and
budget in place 1 year ahead
• So how do we deal with it?

5. Agile concept
• When we work in an
agile project we
want to be able to
plan for only one
sprint at the time.
• Some of the back-
log items could be
depending on
deliveries from
other department
(Internal suppliers)
• We want to aim for
having a flexible
supplier that can
support iterative
Sometimes it helps the supplier if we try
to predict and plan in releases
(But this is not really Agile)

8. One Single Team
• In the my current project we have had great success
with making agreements on resources lend into the
project instead of trying to negotiate a contract and
fix our development plans
• The resources from the supplier could be part of the
team for a shorter or longer period

9. • Direct and smooth
communication
• No Management
overhead
• Optimal knowledge
transfer to the team
• Minimize the risk

11. At a certain
level the
project team
will learn to
develop in the
suppliers
domian

12. If it's not
possible to
have 1. Project
team
... Then we must
return to the good
old school ISA
contract and try to
plan the
sprints/releases
ahead. (How much
ahead depends on the
Supplier)
But you need to be
aware that the
Product Owner
properly will change
his/her mind over
time

13. Start early…
… with building up a
good and trustful
relationship with the
supplier (the
developers)
We have found that
it’s very powerful to
start out with a
proof of concept. This
will build trust
between supplier and
project. And also we
will be much better
at planning the actual
work

14. Key take aways
• Be carefull not to make to many
detailed and static agreements with
the suppliers...
”Flexibility is good”
• Explain the situation to the supllier -
they will properly know the agile
concept already
• This is somethig that is wearth fighting
for

15. Questions?
Fell free to contact me
+45 2989 5310
@MartinVinther