I’ve written about the idea of an iteration-less process before, and we’ve been using the spirit of the idea at the startup I work at (Cinch) for the past few weeks.

The idea is simple, and has two parts. First, eliminate the concept of formal iterations (use a pull-system to let work flow through the pipeline – use Kanban cards if you like). Second, replace the rhythmic heart-beat of iterations with actual releases to customers (internal or external).

These releases do not have to be spaced out by a week or two or any arbitrary span of time. They ought to be, in fact, the shortest amount of time that the software system can be re-stabilized after undergoing change (through adding features or fixing defects). Hence, if it takes 2 days to do a release, do it then. If, for some reason, it takes 6 days (instead of the old five), then so be it. However, the focus of the team should be on getting quality software into the hands of the final users. After all, everything else is inventory.

Pretty simple, eh? We have combined this with the idea of the estimation-less process, for even greater effect. I have been hearing from some people that I have worked with in the past, and they’ve reported excellent results through just such a process. So, anyway – that’s what iteration-less means.

P.S.

In a past life I had spoken about this with Jeff Sutherland when I attended Deep Lean (in 2007) – and he agreed that this made sense. He didn’t recommend it for any but the most experienced team – and I certainly agree with that. If your team is new to agile or is lacking in some other way, getting it going with the standard approach to agile is probably the best thing to do.

However – if your team can pull this off, you might want to give it a shot and see how much productivity increases over time.