Contract templates as project placebo

There was recently an article in the Norwegian (and Norwegian language) publication Computerworld claiming that the legal framework, which was based on a template from the construction business, had helped making a large IT project successful. I wrote a response to this, together with colleague Jakob Markussen, that you can read here (Norwegian).

We put forward that project management techniques including risk management, well-defined processes, iterative development, and last but not least the collaboration and communication is more important than the legal framework template that is chosen for a project. After all, as any of us that have struggled with contracts know, the real work is in the appendices – and if you don’t have to revisit details of the contract to resolve conflicts, even better!