Many software projects use an agile approach to deliver software in an iterative manner. The goal is to deliver value to users faster and with fewer headaches. The days of “big bang” launches have been replaced with smaller releases on a more frequent schedule.

Although it is over seventeen years old, many people still refer to the agile manifesto as a best-practice for software delivery. While the world has changed significantly since the manifesto’s inception, many principles still hold a lot of value.

A very important benefit of regular small releases, is the opportunity it brings to receive customer feedback. When the customer is closely involved, it is possible (and often highly desirable) to adapt to their evolving requirements.

Sprint Celebrations

The ability to continuously deliver software into production, doesn’t necessarily mean continuous production deployment is desired. Often releasing to production is coupled with marketing campaigns, with the release of related products or with other timing-related restrictions. Other releases, like bugfixes or (smaller) improvements, can be made available as soon as they are ready. A big release is a great moment to celebrate, but it is also important to celebrate smaller achievements, like a successful sprint, the completion of a new feature or a fixed bug. When the team has a sense of achievement, people will be happy and motivated.

Ryan Degruyter, never short of devices.

(Part of) our team.