10 Commandments of IT Contracts

Posted on January 27, 2009 by Peter Vogel

My 10 Commandments of IT Contracts have been a common speech I have given for many years and is based on drafting, negotiating, and litigating hundred of IT contracts. Most IT professionals can guess all 10:

1st Commandment – No Computer Project is ever completed on time
2nd Commandment – No Computer Project is ever complete
3rd Commandment – If you cannot see the software, it does not exist
4th Commandment – New versions of operating systems never work
5th Commandment – There are no Industry Standards
6th Commandment – Do not buy brand new hardware
7th Commandment – Do not buy brand new software
8th Commandment – Sales people have answers to every question
9th Commandment – Sales people know absolutely nothing
10th Commandment – Individuals who negotiate contracts are never around later

Obviously there are other issues to be concerned about when negotiating IT Contracts, this is not the universe by any stretch.

Consider all 10 Commandments when you next negotiate an IT Contract, and post a comment to let me know if you know of other Commandments to add to the list.
 

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John Winslow - January 27, 2009 2:14 PM

Candidate for 11th commandment - "Any IT development project large enough to have its own acronym name (BEST, BIGGEST, CYCLONE, etc) will fail."

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