2015-08-30

Aren’t we done, yet?


Tom Breur
30 August 2015


As part of the Agile credo “deliver early and often”, we want to get our products in the hands of end-users as early as possible. That’s how we create value. Or rather: unless we get our products in the hands of end-users, for sure we are not creating value (yet).

This conundrum can be vexing. We want to deliver high quality, well-tested products. Quickly. If only there wasn’t so much (time) pressure!  You don’t go any faster by cutting corners, but you do want to get feedback as quick as possible. The way out of this dilemma is to shrink your deliverables into smaller chunks. Not by deploying without documentation or testing.

A Story is “done”, well, when your definition of done is met. That’s what it means to work in an empowered team. In the interest of quality and avoiding waste, you do well to include thoughtful and gracious feedback gathering during your product demo. Even (also) if that implies making another pass over “the same” Story. Or rather, acknowledging that getting the requirements “just right” is plain hard. After all, the customer is always right, isn’t she?


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