Laws of Software Engineering · Pattern
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.
How to use it. For each piece of work, estimate what it costs to ship it a week later. Use that to set the order of work. The items with the highest cost of delay go first, whatever the effort.
How it gets misused. Estimated in detail, then ignored. The number does not have to be precise. A rough order of magnitude is enough to change priorities. The value comes from using it.
Related
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Law
Little's Law
Things sitting in the system = how often they arrive × how long they stay.
- Saying Outcome over Output Build to change something in the world, not to ship a feature.
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Saying
Reversibility (Two-Way Doors)
Some decisions are easy to undo. Some are not. Spend more time on the ones that are not.
Clusters
- The Lean Product cluster - How to build the right thing.