Include in the contract "non-functional" requirements (the distinction can be fuzzy with a good case to put some requirement in both categories, but it's a usef

Include in the contract "non-functional" requirements (the distinction can be fuzzy with a good case to put some requirement in both categories, but it's a useful distinction nonetheless). These are things like how stable it is (uptime requirements, perhaps), how secure it is. How quickly can a new feature be delivered? This lets you require an organizational capability, but not a system feature capability. If it takes your contractor 6 months to deliver an update with a color change to a page background, something is wrong. Require more responsiveness, but also offer more responsiveness on your side (like if you have a QA/test team responsible for final sign-off or to answer clarification questions, etc.). You don't want to mandate their internal processes, at that point they're not contractors they're your employees and you are essentially taking over their management. EDIT: Grammar