Iterations mean Shipping
Iteration cycles (sprints) are designed to produce working, shippable software
Agile is made up of a number of approaches for managing work. Some weren't as successful as others (story points for one) but the one that has really worked well are iterations.
An iteration is a set period of time during which work is planned, completed, tested and ready to deliver. Whether or not you actually ship during that period is immaterial - the point is that the software is ready to go.
This also works well with budget constraints. If the budget changes midway through an entire project, you can still deliver a working product. If you're a consulting company, this can go a long way for building confidence in the company as a whole. While you couldn't deliver the entire solution (for reasons that weren't your fault), you were able to deliver critical pieces of the solution.
Now the question is: what do you work on?
In a traditional waterfall or even MSF, the first period is always on…
Agile is made up of a number of approaches for managing work. Some weren't as successful as others (story points for one) but the one that has really worked well are iterations.
An iteration is a set period of time during which work is planned, completed, tested and ready to deliver. Whether or not you actually ship during that period is immaterial - the point is that the software is ready to go.
This also works well with budget constraints. If the budget changes midway through an entire project, you can still deliver a working product. If you're a consulting company, this can go a long way for building confidence in the company as a whole. While you couldn't deliver the entire solution (for reasons that weren't your fault), you were able to deliver critical pieces of the solution.
Now the question is: what do you work on?
In a traditional waterfall or even MSF, the first period is always on…
