How many times do I have to tell you this?
Agile software development, with one exception mentioned below, is iterative. An iteration consists of a short time-box, from one month down to one week. The length of the iteration, averaged over random teams I hear about, seems to be coming down from one month (the original Scrum standard) toward one week, the XP cycle which I currently recommend. I’d guess the current mode is about two weeks.
But I digress. The essential element of Agile, the sine qua non, the necessary condition, the prerequisite, the thing you must do or be laughed out of town on a rail is:
The team must deliver running, tested, integrated software, “done-done”, as the Scrum people like to say, at the end of every iteration.
There is no way out of this. You can’t deliver software every other iteration. You can’t deliver mostly-done software and fix it next iteration. Don’t even bother to twist on the hook. You have to deliver software.
One Exception
If you’re looking down here to be cut a break, you have come to the wrong place. The single exception to delivering done-done software every iteration is to deliver it more frequently than that. Some top teams are now operating in a sort of “kanban” mode where they deliver features essentially continuously, typically every few days.
Sorry, No Way Out
Real, running, integrated, testing, done-done software. Every iteration, or else all the time. When you set out to do that, you’ll surely run into some difficulties as you learn what it takes to do this. You’ll surely discover that the meaning of “done” is further than you think. Of course done includes the manual. Of course it includes user training. Of course it includes whatever impossible thing you’re thinking of.
Falling Short of Perfection
Your team is probably falling short of perfection on getting all this done every iteration. (If not, get in touch: I’d like to observe and see how you’re doing it). What you’re supposed to do when you inevitably find room for improvement is what Scrum calls “Inspect and Adapt”. As Kent Beck put it: “Find your biggest problem and solve it the XP way, then repeat.”
If you need a little help, there are lots of people who can coach you. I might even be one of those myself.
Now start shipping that software!
