Deliver working software frequently, from a couple of weeks to a couple of months, with a preference to the shorter time scale.
– Agile Principle #3
The third Agile Principle rounds out the customer-focused principle group and emphasizes the fact that delivering working software as soon as possible will drive success on your agile projects. By implementing this principle on your agile projects:
You deliver products to market faster: One thing that is common to all agile implementations, regardless of the specific method used (e.g., scrum, lean, XP, etc.), is that all these methods include iteration cycles (called sprints with scrum). These iterations are fairly short, usually 30 days or less. The use of brief iterations is crucial since it helps the project team and the customer take advantage of functionality that has an immediate, short-term demand and to deliver new product features to market as soon as possible.
Customers receive working features quicker: Frequent delivery also means that you get working features into the hands of customers and other stakeholders as quickly as possible. This ensures that the development team will receive informative, immediate feedback on necessary changes. This will also help determine whether the project team is headed in the right direction in terms of the requirements and tasks. Teams can quickly validate if they can proceed in a given direction, or if there is a need to make adjustments.
