Two ways to make a date
Every project reaches a week where the release is at risk. There are two ways to still make the date. One is to cut corners: skip the tests, leave the error states for later, ship the code nobody reviewed. The other is to cut scope: ship fewer things, finished properly.
We always choose the second, and we say so in the first week, so nobody is surprised when it happens.
How we cut
- We cut whole features, not parts of them. A feature without its empty state or its error message is not smaller, it is broken.
- We cut from the end of the list, which we agreed with you at the start, so the decision is not made in a hurry.
- What we cut is written down, with an estimate, and becomes the start of the next release.
A smaller product that works is a better release than a larger one that mostly works.
