I was honored to speak at the Advanced Practices Council of the Society for Information Management on January 15, 2018 about my 10 Commandments of IT Contracts which I updated from my 2009 blog on the same topic since I have been speaking on this topic forever.  Here are my latest 10 Commandments:

1st Commandment – No IT Project is ever completed on time

2nd Commandment – No IT Project is ever complete

3rd Commandment – You can never plan too much for system implementations

4th Commandment – Not all Cloud Solutions work

5th Commandment – Verify your Terms of Service, Click Agreements, & Privacy Policies

6th Commandment – No one is truly ready for the next Cyber Intrusion

7th Commandment – There are no Industry Standards

8th Commandment – Do not create artificial deadlines to sign IT contracts

9th Commandment – Sales people have answers to every question

10th Commandment – Individuals who negotiate contracts are never around later

After posting a blog on the 10 Commandment in 2009 some clients proposed #11 and #12:

11th Commandment – Any IT project large enough to have its own acronym name (Moonshine, Sahara, Liberty, or the like) will fail.

12th Commandment– Before every IT project, select a scapegoat and do not invite that person to meetings.

I welcome your thoughts on the 10+ Commandments!

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