How to release yourself from a contract

My daily tasks as manager of a small IT firm involves contract negotiations. I have to renegotiate contracts that were signed before I joined the firm, or were signed few days after I joined the firm. One of my major goals as general manager is to cut costs; my current staff need major training in cost cutting methods. A few days after I joined the firm, a major contact was signed to develop new software. The software was built to help technicians and the site manager to keep track of daily maintenance activities. I agreed to facilitate the project based on recommendations by the site manager. The site manager recommended a software developer to manage the project, which I later discovered lacked the skills to develop the software with the needed functionality.

Now it’s my job to cut the funding for the project and explain to the developer that his product is not meeting our expectations. How do I release our firm out of this contract without jeopardizing our reputation in the market as a company that keeps its promises to its clients and to its contractors?

I had to do a little homework and use my technical and programming skills to evaluate the software, which lacked the very basics. I also had to search in the local market, the local market in Saudi Arabia, for software with similar functionality so I could compare it with our software. This is called benchmarking research. It also gives weight to your argument.

I decided to stop the project when I discovered that the developer was asking a premium price for his work, which I believe was not done professionally to begin with.

I had a technical discussions with the developer over his work and I asked him some technical questions regarding his work which he failed to answer.

I asked him:

1- Do you have the requirements gathering document?
2- Are you familiar with black box testing?
3- Are you familiar with white box testing?
4- Are you familiar with user acceptance testing?

The developer was asking premium price for his work which I refused to pay, since his work was more of an immature programmer than a professional developer.

The lesson from the above article is: as a manager, it’s your duty to ensure that your firm is getting the best product for money paid. Don’t put up with sloppy work; learn how to negotiate your way out of a bad contract.

To negotiate yourself out of a contract, use the following tips:

1- Make sure that the other party has actually violated the terms of the contract
2- Do your homework, and become very familiar with all the technical aspects of the products - benchmark research
3- Be ready to prove to the other party why their work is not acceptable - be precise and give examples
4 -Make it clear to the other party that your time and resources were wasted
5- Keep it clear that the decision was made based on a professional review and not on a personal preferences