How to Ignore Competitive Advantage

These were all competitive advantages that a bidding firm employing Scrum could use to win a fixed-price, fixed-date RFP if the prospect was open to discussing them. Some prospects would be intrigued. Others might not even want to talk about it. Some wouldn’t even know how to talk about it. At a U.S. Department of Defense workshop in 2002, I was part of a discussion about this approach. At the end of the discussion, a contracting officer for the U.S. Air Force said, “I don’t even know what you people have been talking about. If you presented me with the type of stuff you’ve been describing, I’d call your bid out of compliance. Contracting officers in the Air Force and other services go through formal, rigorous training, and nothing in the training even hints at the things that you’ve been talking about.” Using Scrum in fixed-price, fixed- date situations presents an opportunity, but only if your audience knows how to listen and is willing to listen.