To foster an environment of trust, which is the driver of success in outsourced development projects, Verified Teams sets a clear standard of behaviour that all members of the Verified Teams ecosystem must read and commit to.

Principle 1: Integrity

  1. We provide truthful information to the best of our knowledge in all our professional interactions. We openly talk about unknowns and uncertainties.
  2. We'd never do anything in our work lives that we would not happily tell to each other, a judge, a newspaper reporter, or our mothers/children.
  3. Important project information is collected, labelled, and organised somewhere secure and accessible to relevant parties (only). Relevant parties are informed about important and urgent problems as they arise, and important non-urgent problems in the next reporting interaction.
  4. We deserve to enjoy our work lives where we're treated with respect and are free to do our best work. We don't tolerate harassment, discrimination, or intimidation. We get paid promptly and well enough to feel financially secure, and our working hours allow for meaningful and healthy lives outside of work.

Principle 2: Performance

  1. Project success is the shared goal. We persistently and continuously choose the path of increasing the likelihood of project success, before, during, and even after any project. We don't start projects if we haven't done the work to be confident of success.
  2. We commit to a steady agile rhythm with achievable sprint/milestone goals and frequent meetings to inspect progress, collaboratively find the best path for project success, and talk openly about performance.
  3. When there's disagreement about the right path, we make time to explain our points of view and push for consensus. We trust Verified Teams' Risk Manager to act as a tiebreaker because moving forward is usually better than inaction.
  4. Nobody gets to benefit from a failed project. Everyone has enough skin in the game for failure to be painful, but not enough to fear of lasting damage. This arrangement is agreed before the project commences.
  5. We get to share about our successes. A full post-project interview with Verified Teams is a mandatory requirement for all parties for the purposes of compiling and sharing a Success Story. Contracts or agreements that prevent this will not be signed.

Anyone found violating these principles, whether that be in the course of a Verified Teams project otherwise, will forfeit their right (and that of their organisation) to participate in Verified Teams indefinitely.