INTRODUCTION

It may surprise some people to learn that many companies will spend significant amounts of money and embark on mission critical software development projects without signing a detailed agreement clearly setting out what is to be developed, who owns what and what the respective duties and responsibilities of the parties are. Unfortunately, it happens quite frequently and although the projects sometimes turn out, all too often there are major misunderstandings about what was to be delivered, how much it would cost and how it would work.

Many of these problems can be avoided if the parties would discuss those points ahead of time and putting their decisions in writing - before the enthusiasm of getting a new custom solution gets ahead of the necessity of getting the details down on paper before everything has gone too far.

To my mind it is much like hiring a contractor to build you a house without plans and without an agreement or understanding as to what you want. You may get a building with four walls, a roof, windows and doors, but it is very unlikely that you will get exactly what you wanted. You would be even more surprised if the contractor ending up owning your house - something that can happen in a software context.