Two weeks. That’s how long an Agile team’s Sprint usually last for. A Sprint is a feature cycle most, if not all, engineering teams use to plan, scope, meet and update, and ship incremental work.
Two weeks sound and seem long, but it’s in fact short and quick. It more often than not feels like what it is – a sprint. Things sometimes end up being rushed and most people end up tired, out of breath. Just like, you guessed it, a sprint.
There is something wrong with this approach because those who are not doing the actual work believe it’s simple, straightforward, and therefore plan and scope bigger pieces of work, while those doing the work are trying to make the complex easy and the long short.
Sprint, just the name itself, sounds and feels tiring. We need a better name – needless to say, a better approach to working on features. What could be a way to improve work so those doing the work don’t feel out of breath at the end of the cycle, yet features get delivered with the highest quality, on time, and at their initial cost.
Fixed budget, flexible scope. Four to six weeks from scoping and planning to working and shipping. That, I think, sounds like an improvement and a healthier path.
This will be the approach I will take when working on my ideas, projects, and company. But of course, shorter and faster as I’m a one-person team. 🏗👷♂️⚒
Richard Chan 