24May
In this highly dynamic and fast paced world, one would tend to think that lead time of features would make sense for business and more so with DevOps and Continuous deployment gaining ground.
Is it so straightforward?
If the application under question is web-based and B2C more likely the case. If it is a product deployed in the customer organization (in a B2B context) it starts getting tricky. The Product house may develop newer features and newer function, but the customer organizations may not have the appetite to upgrade. More so if there is data migration or significant downtime involved. In such contexts it is not uncommon to see many versions being supported and fixing defects and propagating the fixes across different versions makes it a configuration management nightmare. Probably solving this conundrum through a credible software or a business strategy provides more business value than churning out newer features.
At a much different level of an organizational discourse, it is quite possible that responsiveness is valued. Which would mean that cross-functionalism within teams and between teams is encouraged. This would in turn translate into a lesser throughput of new features. Perfectly valid!
My next post on Evidence based management!
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