12 Agile Principles — #3 of 12

Deliver Working Software Frequently

“Deliver working software frequently, from a couple of weeks to a couple of months, with a preference to the shorter timescale.”

The next principle emphasizes using an iterative approach to break up a project into very small increments called sprints or iterations, which are typically in the range of two to four weeks. There are a couple of reasons why this makes a lot of sense:

1. All agile development processes such as Scrum are based on continuous improvement. Instead of having a rigidly defined process that never changes, the team is expected to take an empirical approach to learn what works and what doesn’t work as the project progresses, and make adjustments as necessary. If the project is broken up into very short increments and learning takes place at the end of each increment, learning and continuous improvement can happen much more rapidly. A popular agile mantra is, “Fail early, fail often.” In other words, it’s better in many cases to try something quickly and learn from it and make adjustments, rather than taking all the time that may be needed to try to design an approach that is going to work flawlessly the first time.
2. 2. People work more productively given short time-boxes to get things done. If it is done correctly, the team develops a cadence and a tempo that is very efficient for producing defined increments of work quickly and efficiently, like a manufacturing assembly line.

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