This article from mid-2008 describes the kind of contract that has great potential in supporting Agile teams that provide services to federal government agencies:

“The real philosophy behind this is the government was driving up the price of work by mandating that people do it in a certain way, when, in fact, [contractors] may have known a better way to get it done,” says Jon Desenberg of the Washington-based Performance Institute, a think tank dedicated to improving government performance. The idea “is to let the contracted group come up with the best possible solution and only pay them based on solving the problem . . . not on the individual steps and minutia that we have for so many years required.”

Apparently, this program was begun under Bush II and it’s not all rosy, but there’s lot’s of food for thought here. Since there are now several years of history, here’s hoping that a report has been issued. Will try to find.

It’s interesting, but not surprising, that contractors themselves are foot-dragging. Anyone using language of “nailing jello to a tree” is clearly NOT of an Agile mindset. Agilists love jello! We must know it has a better use than being nailed to plants!

“I think small and midtier businesses would see it as a great opportunity to be innovative, to propose and generate innovation rather than be contained in a predesigned box,” he says. “It gives them an opportunity to demonstrate agility.” Soloway says such companies should carefully assess risks before entering into performance-based contracts.

Source : NextGov Blog [ link ]