N 社は，携帯情報端末用アプリケーションソフトウェア（以下，携帯アプリという）の商品開発プロジェクトを，4 月 1 日に社外秘で立ち上げた。携帯アプリの商品開発プロジェクトは，マーケティングを自社で，ソフトウェア開発を外部調達で行う。 〔7 月 1 日までのプロジェクトの経緯〕 (1) N 社の体制：4 月のプロジェクト立上げ時の構成員は，プロジェクトマネージャ 1 名とプロジェクトメンバ 3 名であったが，6 月からは A さんが参加し総勢 5 名になった。 (2) ソフトウェア開発：B 社及び C 社と守秘義務契約を締結後，この 2 社に見積書を提出してもらい，6 月中旬に B 社と請負契約を締結した。 (3) プロジェクト期間短縮：プロジェクト期間は当初 7 か月の計画で開始したが，競合他社が類似商品を開発する動きがあることから，6 月下旬に全体で 1 か月プロジェクト期間を短縮することを検討し実施した。前提条件は，次の 2 項目とした。 ・商品仕様と請負業務範囲は変更しない。 ・商品発表は，当初ソフトウェア開発の完了時に行うこととしていたが，ソフトウェア開発完了の 0.5 か月前に前倒しする。 〔契約変更と工程管理〕 プロジェクト期間短縮を B 社と協議したところ，次の回答があった。 “ソフトウェア開発工程の作業に要員を追加すれば，作業の完成を早めることが可能である。要員追加に伴い一時生産性が低下し，開発工数が増加するので，そのコスト増分が認められれば対応する。バグ増加などのリスクは少ない。” N 社と B 社は，この内容で合意し，請負契約の変更契約を 6 月末に締結した。 図 1 はプロジェクト期間を 1 か月短縮した変更計画を含むガントチャートである。N 社は，7 月 1 日からこのガントチャートの変更計画に従って工程管理を開始した。 N社が, 見積依頼先の B 社及びC 社と守秘義務契約を締結した理由として, 適切なものはどれか。
平成25年度 秋期 ITパスポート試験 問86
This question's explanation and your answers so far.
問 86
Incorrectア
Prohibiting subcontracting (dumping the whole job on a lower-tier contractor) is a matter settled by a no-subcontracting clause placed in a service outsourcing contract or a contract for work; it is not the purpose of a confidentiality agreement, which protects the confidentiality of information. Furthermore, this question is still at the quotation-request stage, and Company N has not yet concluded any contract for the work with Company B or Company C. Therefore the very premise of discussing "subcontracting of the work contracted with Company N" does not hold.
Incorrectイ
It is only under a worker dispatch (staffing) contract that instructions and orders may be given to the employees of an external supplier; under a contract for work or a service outsourcing arrangement, the client must not give instructions and orders directly to the other party's employees (doing so constitutes disguised contracting). How the chain of command is defined is a matter of the type of contract, not an issue that a confidentiality agreement deals with.
Incorrectウ
Who owns the copyright in software is determined by the Copyright Act and by an intellectual property rights (copyright ownership) clause in the contract. What a confidentiality agreement protects is "keeping the disclosed information secret", not the ownership of rights in a work or the scope of its use. In addition, at the quotation-request stage the software has not even been developed yet.
- エ
正解 A confidentiality agreement (NDA, non-disclosure agreement) is a contract that makes the other party promise not to use the information disclosed to it for purposes other than the intended one and not to leak it to third parties; it is a means of securing the "confidentiality" of information by contract. In this question, in order to have Company B and Company C prepare quotations, Company N has to hand over information that it would rather not let outside the company, such as the specifications and requirements of the system it wants to develop and the details of its own business operations. Moreover, the request goes not to one company but to several, and the information stays in the hands even of the company that does not end up receiving the order. Therefore, in order to prevent the information handed over from leaking outside (to competitors and the like) by way of either Company B or Company C, Company N concludes a confidentiality agreement together with the request for quotation. Choice エ, which states this, is the correct answer.
- A confidentiality agreement (NDA, non-disclosure agreement) = a mechanism for securing the "confidentiality" of disclosed information by contract. Its core is prohibiting use outside the intended purpose and preventing leakage to third parties; issues such as whether subcontracting is allowed, the chain of command, and the ownership of copyright are each handled by separate contract clauses.
- Even before a formal contract, as in a request for quotation, in situations where you disclose your own company's information to several companies you conclude a confidentiality agreement first. Because the information also remains with companies that did not end up receiving the order, it is precisely before the contract that you need to guard against the risk of information leakage.