🚀 The BIG Release vs. 🌊 a Continuous flow of Value

How do we look at a product release? As a big one-time event, where we spend heroic efforts to pull it over the finish line? Or as a continuous flow of high-quality value into the product (even before the customer ever sees it) that is maintained with every change?

This is a mindset difference that leads to two different approaches:

The BIG v1.0 Release:

• Quality is not a priority during development, and gets hammered in with extreme effort right before the BIG Release.
• Tools that make releasing a product easy are not built, rather everything is done manually before the BIG Release.
• Because there is so much work to do for the BIG Release, much of it is not anticipated so schedules slip.
• Issues surface late in the process, which causes further delays.
• Stakes are high, pressure mounts, and people become stressed.

Continuous flow of Value:

• Every pull request (PR) and internal release is treated like an important customer release.
• Tools automatically check quality, eliminating manual verification.
• Releases are automated to enable frequent deployments without mistakes.
• As a result, the product is always ready to release - internally or to customers.
• Releases happen often (full manufacturing package) because it is easy.
• Test fixtures are already done because they are created to test each feature when the feature was developed.
• Prototypes (which are just scaled back manufacturing) are easy to build and test because a manufacturing release process already exists.
• More prototypes get built and more gets learned from actually using the product.
• Issues and manufacturing problems surface early in the design cycle.
• Beta releases can be sent to early customers for feedback without hesitation because the finished features are high quality.
• Production release is not a big engineering event, but rather a point where people start paying for the product.
• Schedules are predictable because there is no extra work for production release, but rather just a focus on the features needed for that incremental release.
• Stress is low, people are happy.

The second scenario is desirable, but what is perhaps not so obvious is the mindset shift required to get there - a relentless focus on quality throughout the development process, automating anything done repeatedly, and thorough testing early in the process. Every internal release, every PR, every day is a BIG Release.