Re: [xml-dev] XML As Fall Guy

[Michael Kay <mike@saxonica.com>]

On 28 Nov 2013, at 22:08, Tony Graham <tgraham@mentea.net> wrote:

> On Wed, November 27, 2013 5:18 pm, Michael Kay wrote:
>>> I wonder how much better these types of projects could go if a more
>>> incremental (Agile) approach was taken. The beauty of XML is that if you
>>> set
>>> the systems up right it can give you amazing flexibility and power
>>> combined.
>> 
>> No one knows how to do government-style procurement in an Agile way. The
>> only way they know is to write a 10,000 page invitation to tender, have
>> three big consultancies spend a few million dollars each writing a 10,000
>> page response to it, and then choosing one of the options. By this time
> 
> "Live-graphing the UK Government’s agile auction"
> 
> https://blog.scraperwiki.com/2013/11/live-graphing-the-uk-governments-agile-auction/
> 

This looks like the bidding was on daily rates for services, therefore presumably a time-and-materials contract, rather than the kind of procurement we have been talking about. And there's the rub; with time and materials the supplier is motivated to spin out the work, while with a fixed price for a specified deliverable, the client is forced to specify the deliverable in detail in advance. Neither is at all satisfactory.

Michael Kay
Saxonica