Projects are not always delivered on time. Delay can give rise to disputes. There are accepted methods developed in the construction industry that are frequently deployed in relation to disputed IT delay. Changes in approach to technology projects to favour iterative delivery over traditional waterfall projects render construction delay methods increasingly inappropriate. This paper examines current delay methods, their prerequisites and what has changed to cause differences between construction and IT project methods. Iterative delivery is frequently used, one reason being the application of agile delivery. An approach is proposed for delay analysis of iterative IT projects, focused on agile scrum. This is consistent with commonly available evidence and the objective of explaining the delay to actual delivery observed in relation to plan.
This paper was published by the Society of Computers & Law and may be downloaded from their web site. It is free to SCL members (login required). A fee is charged to non-members for download.
A shortened article written for an audience of lawyers on the same subject is available here. The SCL has also published an associated podcast.
