Laws of Software Engineering · Pattern
Pattern
Build-Measure-Learn
Build the smallest thing that tests your idea. Measure what happens. Learn what to do next.
How to use it. Use it when you do not know what to build. Make each loop small enough to fit inside one of your real planning cycles. A loop delivers learning, and the artefact is how you get it.
How it gets misused. The "build" step swallows the loop. Teams ship a year of work and call the launch the "measure" step. By then, the cost of being wrong is too high to act on what you learn.
Related
- Principle Feedback Loops Every system improves at the rate of its slowest feedback loop. Shorten the loops between action and outcome.
- Saying Outcome over Output Build to change something in the world, not to ship a feature.
- Pattern Cost of Delay The economic value lost by waiting one more week to ship something. Often higher than the cost of doing it badly.
Clusters
- The Improvement cluster - How systems get better over time.
- The Lean Product cluster - How to build the right thing.