Re:Iterative development: the secret to great product launches
by Jtsummers on Monday February 25, 2019 @12:32PM
(#19247435)
I want to +1 this but also add to it.
I worked on a safety critical system (among many others, but this one in particular) that was developed in an iterative fashion. The "MVP" was not sufficient for fielding the aircraft, it was sufficient for testing the aircraft. Each successive iteration was meant to be closer to what was needed for later testing stages, and finally a release that was good enough (not feature-complete, but complete enough) to allow for carrying passengers.
Most of the later additions were "nice-to-haves". They provided better reporting and recording of issues, better BITs (built-in-tests) which reduced maintenance effort, etc. Nothing essential for safety, but useful for improving overall quality-of-life issues for the operators and maintainers.
Each stage also ensured that we were building what was actually needed (reporting the right kind of things, reporting it in the correct way, etc.) before we spent millions of dollars and years of effort on the wrong thing.
I worked on a safety critical system (among many others, but this one in particular) that was developed in an iterative fashion. The "MVP" was not sufficient for fielding the aircraft, it was sufficient for testing the aircraft. Each successive iteration was meant to be closer to what was needed for later testing stages, and finally a release that was good enough (not feature-complete, but complete enough) to allow for carrying passengers.
Most of the later additions were "nice-to-haves". They provided better reporting and recording of issues, better BITs (built-in-tests) which reduced maintenance effort, etc. Nothing essential for safety, but useful for improving overall quality-of-life issues for the operators and maintainers.
Each stage also ensured that we were building what was actually needed (reporting the right kind of things, reporting it in the correct way, etc.) before we spent millions of dollars and years of effort on the wrong thing.