Why isn't an exit clause enough when buying from an FDE vendor?

An exit clause gets you out. It doesn't get you what you paid for. In an honest forward deployed model the vendor's product absorbs what the engineers learned on site, so the next quarter needs fewer of their hours. A buyer who contracts only for the exit leaves without the thing the premium was for. Contract for the loop: which codebase the work goes into, hours that fall, and proof the vendor has shipped field work as product before.

Who owns the prompts, configurations, and eval data an FDE builds?

Whoever the contract says, and the default is often not the customer. AWS's partner-led FDE program states that the delivery IP, including ontologies, evaluation frameworks, and the context graph, stays with the partner. Mukul Saha at Gartner recommends the statement of work explicitly cover evaluation datasets, labeled examples, prompt libraries, data mappings, and any model weights tuned on your data. The eval rows are the one to fight for, because they are the only thing that lets you switch vendors and know on day one whether the new system is worse.

What is the independence test for an FDE engagement?

Before the exit date, the customer's internal team completes a full release cycle, change request through testing to production, while the vendor's engineers only observe. That is Mukul Saha's recommendation as reported by CDOTrends on October 5, 2026. Falk would run it thirty days after go-live rather than at the exit date, while the engineer is still there to watch it fail.

How do you tell a real FDE vendor from a services firm?

Ask the vendor to name three product features that began as customer field work, with examples and dates, and ask who the product manager is who reads what the engineers send back. Gartner forecasts that fewer than 20 percent of FDE engagements through 2028 will turn recurring customer needs into core product, so most vendors won't have three. Saha's advice when the answers are vague is to price and contract the work as ordinary services.

What did Praveen Jonnala mean by backward-deployed domain experts?

In CIO.com on October 13, 2026, Jonnala argued that enterprises need their own operators trained in AI rather than vendor engineers trained in the business, because outside engineers can't own cross-functional trade-offs and the learning leaves with them: 'the lab learns your business. You learn their product.' The contract answer is to make producing that internal operator the FDE's deliverable, with a named counterpart and an independence test.

What to Put in a Forward Deployed Engineering Contract

What should an enterprise put in a forward deployed engineering contract?

THE SHORT ANSWER

Six lines. Ownership of the customer layer, meaning configurations, prompts, data mappings, business logic, and the evaluation rows built on your data, which Mukul Saha at Gartner says the statement of work should name explicitly. Which codebase the vendor's engineer works in, per layer: Atlassian's October 2026 program has its engineers in Atlassian's codebase so fixes ship to every customer, while AWS's partner-led FDE program states that the delivery IP stays with the partner. FDE hours that decline over the contract term, Bertrand Maltaverne's term. A named counterpart on your side whose independence is the deliverable, which is what Praveen Jonnala, CIO at Vistance Networks, called a backward-deployed domain expert. An independence test before exit, in which your team runs a full release cycle while the vendor only observes. And the renewal price for FDE support, written before the pilot. Before signing, ask the vendor to name three product features that began as customer field work, with dates; if they can't, price the work as ordinary services.

Six lines. The customer layer is yours, including the evaluation rows, which Mukul Saha at Gartner says the statement of work should name explicitly. The contract says which codebase the engineer works in, per layer, because Atlassian's program puts its engineers in Atlassian's codebase while AWS's partner-led program says the delivery IP stays with the partner. FDE hours fall over the term, by contract, Bertrand Maltaverne's term. A named counterpart on your side is the deliverable, which is what Praveen Jonnala asked for as a backward-deployed domain expert. Your team passes an independence test before the engineers leave. And the renewal price is written before the pilot.

Before any of it, ask the vendor to name three product features that began as customer field work, with dates. A vendor who can't is a services firm with a new title.

Part 10 of The FDE Transition, Buying From an FDE Company: Write the Move-Out Into the Contract, makes the case in full. The handbook chapter on FDE economics has the buyer's side of the table, and the month-two handoff page has the keys line the independence test checks.

Last reviewed 2026-10-20 · 1 min read

What should an enterprise put in a forward deployed engineering contract?

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