Some random thoughts about the Lean Software principle, Deliver as fast as possible:
Deliver fast does not mean work harder. It means work smarter. Leverage the power of software (automation, Object-Oriented techniques...) and Extreme Programming to deliver faster.
When Jeff Sutherland invented Scrum he intended that Scrum be used with object-oriented (OO) languages like Java and C#. That's because object-oriented languages have features that enable rapid development, allowing developers to respond to change and deliver working software by the end of the sprint. So you can view Scrum as a form of rapid development.
Scrum requires Extreme Programming's technical practices (TDD, Continuous Integration) to meet the goal of delivering software by the end of the sprint. A team is not considered Agile unless they can delivery working software that is potentially shippable by sprint's end.
Cross-functional feature teams are also needed for rapid development. Feature teams have all the skills needed to create and deliver the application. The work of the feature team will often result in an object-oriented framework that will help the feature team build software even faster.
Ideally, teams need to figure out how to deliver software so fast that stakeholders don't worry about the team's ability to deliver. Deliver fast is important because Amazon releases software to production every 11.6 seconds; this means Amazon has the ability to learn about customers at a fast pace. This is a key metric: How fast are your learning cycles?
In fast-moving organizations, the work is structured so that the people doing the work know what to do without being told and are expected to solve problems and adapt to changes without permission. This is the power of self-organizing feature teams.
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