Outsourcing firms will do strict contracts as you said, to cover their asses. The history has proven that they are not enforceable and can usually backfire for

Outsourcing firms will do strict contracts as you said, to cover their asses. The history has proven that they are not enforceable and can usually backfire for the client. A client wants something. In software, the something is usually complex and not well understood, a contract is done to do a something like that. During the project, they will invariably find new information and issues, the scope will change, sometimes dramatically. For the comparison, consider a building. You want to construct a new building, it's easy, you say what land you have, the engineers will tell you how large and tall they can build on that, you get to pick the interiors among a few office/industrial layouts. You can all understand what is being discussed. In software project, there is no physical limitations and no regulations. The limits are not clearly defined, noone will see or believe them. Worse, you have to integrate with clients/new/legacy systems that are not well defined and unknown ahead of time, nothing you can plan about that.