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International Conference on Software Technologies

ICSOFT 2014: Software Technologies pp 97–112Cite as

The Fixed-Price Contract: A Challenge for the Software Development Project

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Part of the book series: Communications in Computer and Information Science ((CCIS,volume 555))

Abstract

Describing the software development project between customer and supplier at the contracting level as interaction of the involved organizations in terms of game theory, we can show that the parties are in a dilemma situation regarding the effort for closing the gaps of incomplete requirement specifications. Incomplete, ambiguous, and changing requirements are the number one reason for failure of software development projects. Customer and supplier have to interchange information for closing requirement gaps. However, gathering and interchanging information generates undesirable costs. The most commonly used contract model is a fixed-price contract. Under this condition, the supplier is forced to cooperate, whereas the customer prefers to defect regarding closing requirement gaps. In support of our theoretical argument, we carried out an empirical investigation. We derive suggestions for improving the fixed-price contract design of software development projects as well as for the cooperation behavior during the project.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Research Group on Strategic Information Management, European Research Center for Information Systems, University of Muenster, Leonardo Campus 11, 48149, Muenster, Germany

    Cornelia Gaebert

Authors
  1. Cornelia Gaebert
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Correspondence to Cornelia Gaebert .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Medical Informatis, Statistics, Document, Medical University Graz, Graz, Austria

    Andreas Holzinger

  2. Engenharia Informática Dept, Universidade de Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal

    Jorge Cardoso

  3. INSTICC and IPS, Setúbal, Portugal

    José Cordeiro

  4. Dépt. Informatique, Université de Montpellier, Montpellier, France

    Therese Libourel

  5. Wroclaw University of Economics, Wroclaw, Poland

    Leszek A. Maciaszek

  6. Dept. of Computer Science, University of Twente, Enschede, Overijssel, The Netherlands

    Marten van Sinderen

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Gaebert, C. (2015). The Fixed-Price Contract: A Challenge for the Software Development Project. In: Holzinger, A., Cardoso, J., Cordeiro, J., Libourel, T., Maciaszek, L., van Sinderen, M. (eds) Software Technologies. ICSOFT 2014. Communications in Computer and Information Science, vol 555. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-25579-8_6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-25579-8_6

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-25578-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-25579-8

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

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