From Contract to Conflict: REVERA Kazakhstan Experts Review Practical Lessons for IT Businesses

On 11 June, an in-person REVERA Kazakhstan meetup dedicated to IT contracts, change management in projects and the resolution of IT disputes was held at IT Most Hub in Almaty.

We thank the experts for their presentations and the event participants for a lively and active discussion.

An IT project rarely ends in exactly the same configuration in which it was described at the outset. The business objective changes, new integrations appear, third-party services are connected, the technology stack is updated — and with all of this, the legal picture of the project also changes. At the REVERA Kazakhstan in-person meeting, experts discussed why a template services agreement is not enough in IT, how to record project changes, and which evidence becomes decisive when a contract turns into a dispute.

The discussion was practical in nature: from the structure of the statement of work and acceptance of works to source code, open source components, SaaS, messengers, technical expert examinations and pre-action dispute resolution commissions.

What was discussed at the meeting

The experts discussed why IT contracts require a more complex structure than a classic services contract or works contract. The focus was on the mixed nature of IT contracts, the role of the statement of work, recording changes during the project, interim acceptance of works, and the allocation of liability between the customer, the contractor and third parties.

A separate section was dedicated to evidence in IT disputes: how to record a digital footprint, what role is played by Jira, email, messengers, meeting minutes and public confirmations of a product launch. The participants also discussed why technical specialists and expert evidence are almost always important in such disputes, and why a lawyer needs to translate the technical picture of a project into language that is understandable to the court.

The meeting also covered source code, rights to software, works created in the course of employment, open source components, SaaS models, smart contracts, technical support, vendor lock-in and pre-action mechanisms for resolving conflicts.

What was on the event agenda

The meetup agenda included key issues that IT businesses face at different stages of a project:

• why template agreements do not work for IT development;
• how to properly structure the statement of work and acceptance of works;
• how to record changes in a project and build change management;
• which communication channels can be used as evidence;
• who owns the source code and rights to software;
• what risks arise when using open source and third-party components;
• how disputes relating to SaaS products and service metrics work;
• what role technical expert examinations play in IT disputes;
• how to provide in advance for dispute management and pre-action procedures;
• why it is important to preserve the project’s digital footprint from the very beginning.

Event experts | REVERA law group

• Andrey Artyushenko — moderator of the meeting, Partner, Head of REVERA Kazakhstan
• Alibek Slan — Leading Associate, IT Practice
• Alisher Kissamenov — Associate, IT Practice

REVERA law group thanks the invited experts — Timur Dzhamaldinov and Olga Pekhenko — for their participation in the event, their expert opinion and their presentation of a professional position.

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For general enquiries: kazakhstan@revera.legal