Tom DeMarco

Tim Lister

Litigation Support for Software Intensive Projects

What's Going On Here?

    Litigation is coming to seem like a mandatory final phase for many software contracts. Contractors have endeavored to become "lean and mean" while buyers were ever more intent on getting the most for their system dollar. This has resulted in contracts that left little hope of satisfactory conclusion for all parties. In our experience, there are three main problems that lead eventually to litigation:

• the contract (budget, schedule, overall plan etc.) was flawed from the beginning
• there was no resolution between the parties as to what system should be built
• the project was not managed in a realistic, professional, risk-aware fashion

    Successful prosecution or defense against these three causes calls for three different kinds of expertise:

• quantification and scheduling
• requirements engineering and specification
• risk management

Help for Litigants

    Tom DeMarco and Tim Lister have a well established reputation in each of these three domains. Their books and articles and seminars on Specification and Design, Software Metrics, People-aware Project Management and Risk Management have become a standard for how such matters are conducted in sensible software organizations. They can speak authoritatively on whether a specification was/was not complete, on whether a project was/was not prudently managed, on whether a schedule was/was not properly set in the first place. They have a ready and credible command of what the norms are in the software industry.

    For a fresh perspective on this complicated subject see "Litigation of Software Intensive Projects," by Tom DeMarco and Tim Lister, from the April 1998 issue of Cutter IT Journal.

Contact Information

    For rates and availability and past litigation references contact:

Tom DeMarco: 207 236-4735 or
Tim Lister: 212 620-4282.

top of page