Skip to main content
Springer Nature Link
Log in

Contracting Agile Developments for the Public Sector: The Italian Case

  • Conference paper
  • First Online:
Proceedings of 5th International Conference in Software Engineering for Defence Applications (SEDA 2016)

Part of the book series: Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing ((AISC,volume 717))

Abstract

Even if Agile is a well established software development paradigm, major concerns rise when it comes to contracting issues. How to contractualize the Agile production of software, especially for security and mission critical public organizations, is a major concern. In literature, little has been done, from a foundational point of view regarding the formalization of such contracts. Especially when the development is outsourced to a different organization, the management of the contractual life is difficult. This happens because the interests of the two parties are not aligned. Software houses strive for the minimization of the effort, while the customer expects high quality artifacts. This structural asymmetry can hardly be overcome with traditional “Waterfall” contracts. We propose a foundational approach to the law and economics of Agile contracts. Moreover, we explore the key elements of the Italian procurement law and outline a suitable solution to merge some basic legal constraints with Agile requirements. This is a first framework to start building Agile contracts for the Italian public sector.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution

Subscribe and save

Springer+ Basic
$34.99 /Month
  • Get 10 units per month
  • Download Article/Chapter or eBook
  • 1 Unit = 1 Article or 1 Chapter
  • Cancel anytime
Subscribe now

Buy Now

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. 1.

    http://alistair.cockburn.us/Agile+contracts.

  2. 2.

    http://www1.interno.gov.it/mininterno/export/sites/default/it/assets/files/22/0011_disciplinare_di_gara.pdf.

References

  1. G. Akerlof, The market for “lemons”: quality uncertainty and the market mechanism. Q. J. Econ. 488–500 (1970)

    Google Scholar 

  2. A. Albrecht, J. Gaffney, Software function, source lines of code, and development effort prediction: a software science validation. IEEE Trans. Softw. Eng. 9(6), 639–648 (1983)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. S. Atkinson, G. Benefield, Software development: why the traditional contract model is not fit for purpose, in Proceedings of HICSS46, Software Track (IEEE Computer Society Press, Hawaii, 2013), pp. 330–339

    Google Scholar 

  4. K. Beck, Test Driven Development By Example (Addison-Wesley, Boston, 2003)

    Google Scholar 

  5. M. Book, V. Gruhn, R. Striemer, adVANTAGE: A fair pricing model for agile software development contracting, in Agile Processes in Software Engineering and Extreme Programming, ed. by C. Wohlin (Springer, Malmo, Sweden, 2012), pp. 193–200

    Google Scholar 

  6. M. Book, V. Gruhn, R. Striemer, Tamed Agility (Springer, 2016)

    Google Scholar 

  7. G. Campbell, P. Papapetrou, SonarQube in Action (Manning Publications, 2013)

    Google Scholar 

  8. P. Ciancarini, A. Messina, F. Poggi, D. Russo, Agile knowledge engineering for mission critical software requirements, in Synergies Between Knowledge Engineering and Software Engineering (Springer, 2018), pp. 151–171

    Google Scholar 

  9. F. Ferrucci, C. Gravino, L. Lavazza, Simple function points for effort estimation: a further assessment, in Proceedings of 31st ACM Symposium on Applied Computing (2016), pp. 1428–1433

    Google Scholar 

  10. B. Hermalin, A. Katz, R. Craswell, The law and economics of contracts, in Handbook of Law and Economics, ed. by M. Polinsky, S. Shavell (Elsevier, 2007), pp. 3–138

    Google Scholar 

  11. M. Lapham, M. Bandor, E. Wrubel, Agile methods and request for change (RFC): observations from DoD acquisition programs. Technical Report CMU-SEI-13-TN-31 (Software Engineering Institute, Carnegie Mellon University, 2014)

    Google Scholar 

  12. M. Lapham et al., Agile methods: selected DoD management and acquisition concerns. Technical Report CMU-SEI-11-TN-2 (Software Engineering Institute, Carnegie Mellon University, 2011)

    Google Scholar 

  13. M. Lapham et al., RFP patterns and techniques for successful agile contracting. Technical Report CMU-SEI-13-SR-25 (Software Engineering Institute, Carnegie Mellon University, 2016)

    Google Scholar 

  14. A. Messina, F. Fiore, M. Ruggiero, P. Ciancarini, D. Russo, A new agile paradigm for mission critical software development. Crosstalk—J. Def. Softw. Eng. 29(6), 25–30 (2016)

    Google Scholar 

  15. R. Myerson, Justice, institutions, and multiple equilibria. Chic. J. Int. Law 5, 91 (2004)

    Google Scholar 

  16. K. Nidiffer, S. Miller, D. Carney, Agile methods in air force sustainment: status and outlook. Technical Report CMU-SEI-14-TN-9 (Software Engineering Institute, Carnegie Mellon University, 2014)

    Google Scholar 

  17. K. Nidiffer, S. Miller, D. Carney, Potential use of agile methods in selected DoD acquisitions: requirements development and management. Technical Report CMU-SEI-13-TN-6 (Software Engineering Institute, Carnegie Mellon University, 2014)

    Google Scholar 

  18. A. Opelt, B. Gloger, W. Pfarl, R. Mittermayr, Agile Contracts (Wiley, 2013)

    Google Scholar 

  19. S. Palmquist, M. Lapham, S. Garcia-Miller, T. Chick, I. Ozkaya, Parallel worlds: agile and waterfall differences and similarities. Technical Report CMU-SEI-13-TN-21 (Software Engineering Institute, Carnegie Mellon University, 2014)

    Google Scholar 

  20. E. Pilios, Contracting Practices in Traditional and Agile Software Development (2015)

    Google Scholar 

  21. R. Posner, Gratuitous promises in economics and law. J. Legal Stud. 6(2), 411–426 (1977)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  22. R. Pressman, Software Engineering: A Practictioner’s Approach (McGraw-Hill, 2014)

    Google Scholar 

  23. D. Russo, Benefits of open source software in defense environments, in Proceedings of 4th International Conference on Software Engineering for Defence Applications, volume 422 of Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing (Springer, Berlin, 2016), pp. 123–131

    Google Scholar 

  24. C. Santana, F. Leoneo, A. Vasconcelos, C. Gusmao, Using function points in agile projects, in Agile Processes in Software Engineering and Extreme Programming, volume 77 of Lecture Notes in Business Information Processing (Springer, 2011), pp. 176–191

    Google Scholar 

  25. C. Symons, Function point analysis: difficulties and improvements. IEEE Trans. Softw. Eng. 14(1), 2–11 (1988)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  26. E. Wrubel, J. Gross, Contracting for agile software development in the department of defense: an introduction. Technical Report CMU-SEI-15-TN-06 (Software Engineering Institute, Carnegie Mellon University, 2015)

    Google Scholar 

  27. E. Wrubel, S. Miller, M. Lapham, T. Chick, Agile software teams: how they engage with systems engineering on DoD acquisition programs. Technical Report CMU-SEI-14-TN-13 (Software Engineering Institute, Carnegie Mellon University, 2014)

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Col. Franco Cotugno—SEGREDIFESA/DNA, for the initial idea at the basis of this paper. We also thank for their partial support: the Italian Ministry of Defense with the PNRM AMINSEP (Agile Methodology Implementation for a New Software Engineering Paradigm definition) project; the Italian Interuniversity Consortium for Informatics (CINI), and the Institute of Cognitive Sciences and Technologies of the Italian National Research Council.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Computer Science & Engineering, University of Bologna, Mura Anteo Zamboni 7, 40126, Bologna, Italy

    Daniel Russo & Paolo Ciancarini

  2. Department of Law, University of Genoa, Genoa, Italy

    Gerolamo Taccogna

Authors
  1. Daniel Russo
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Gerolamo Taccogna
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Paolo Ciancarini
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Paolo Ciancarini .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy

    Paolo Ciancarini

  2. ‎Innopolis University, ‎Innopolis, Russia

    Stanislav Litvinov

  3. Innopolis University, Innopolis, Russia

    Angelo Messina

  4. Innopolis University, Innopolis, Russia

    Alberto Sillitti

  5. Innopolis University, Innopolis, Russia

    Giancarlo Succi

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2018 Springer International Publishing AG

About this paper

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this paper

Russo, D., Taccogna, G., Ciancarini, P. (2018). Contracting Agile Developments for the Public Sector: The Italian Case. In: Ciancarini, P., Litvinov, S., Messina, A., Sillitti, A., Succi, G. (eds) Proceedings of 5th International Conference in Software Engineering for Defence Applications. SEDA 2016. Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing, vol 717. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-70578-1_9

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-70578-1_9

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-70577-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-70578-1

  • eBook Packages: EngineeringEngineering (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation