Part 2 of my article on Agile contracts has been published on Gantthead.com. Part 1 reviewed the existing agile contract samples from the DSDM Consortium that speaks to “Fit for business purpose” acceptance criteria and “Passing Tests” rather than meeting specifications. Part 1 also examined the CoActivate Community sample Fixed Price agile contract and Jeff Sutherland’s suggestions on early termination and functionality swapping.

Part 2 highlights some of the ideas Jesse Fewell presented on agile contracts at the PMI Global Congress last year. These include Graduated Fixed Price and Fixed Price Work Packages as building blocks for creating agile contracts.

Clearly these contract options are not panaceas to possible engagement woes, but they do offer some examples of how organizations and suppliers have been able to utilize the flexibility of agile for mutual competitive advantage. 

The new PMI Agile certification will come on stream in two waves. The first is the pilot program starting in May where participants get the chance to sit the 120 question, multiple choice, 3 hr exam and instead of pressing the dreaded “Submit” button at the end, they will be advised 10-12 weeks later. This long wait is to allow the PMI to score everyone in the pilot and then calibrate the cut-off scores.

For enduring the wait, and I guess being guinea pigs in the process, pilot participants will receive a 20% refund on the exam fee bringing the cost to members of $435 down to $348. To qualify to sit the exam participants must satisfy the following criteria:

• High school or equivalent education
• 2,000 hours general project management experience within the last 5 years (if you already hold a PMP you can forget this since you had to prove that for your PMP)
• 1,500 hours agile project management experience working on agile project teams or in agile methodologies within the last 2 years. These hours are in addition to the 2,000 hours required in general project management experience
• 21 hours agile project management training

The full certification program will be publically available in the third quarter of 2011. To maintain the credential you must earn 30 PDUs every 3 years in agile project management and these hours would also count toward fulfilling PMP requirements.