Feature freeze

Feature Freeze

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Feature freeze is a critical milestone in the software development lifecycle that signifies the end of new feature additions to a software project or product. During this phase, the development team focuses on stabilizing the software, addressing existing issues, and preparing for the release. Understanding the concept of feature freeze, its importance, best practices, and challenges is essential for successfully managing software development projects.

Foundations of Feature Freeze

To comprehend the significance of feature freeze, it is crucial to establish several foundational concepts:

  1. Software Development Lifecycle: Feature freeze is a well-defined phase within the software development lifecycle. It occurs after the development and testing of new features and before the release of a software version.
  2. Project Scope: The scope of a software project includes the features and functionalities that are planned for a specific release. Feature freeze marks the point at which no new features can be added to this scope.
  3. Release Planning: Successful feature freeze depends on effective release planning. This involves setting clear goals, defining features, and establishing a timeline for the software release.
  4. Quality Assurance: Feature freeze is closely tied to quality assurance and bug fixing. During this phase, the focus shifts from adding new features to ensuring the stability and reliability of the existing ones.

Core Principles of Feature Freeze

Several core principles underpin the concept of feature freeze:

  1. Stability: Feature freeze promotes stability by restricting changes to the existing codebase. This stability is crucial for thorough testing and quality assurance.
  2. Prioritization: The prioritization of bug fixes and issue resolution becomes a priority during feature freeze. Critical issues take precedence over non-critical ones.
  3. Testing and Validation: Rigorous testing and validation of existing features are essential to identify and address any issues or defects before the release.
  4. Communication: Effective communication among team members, stakeholders, and users is key to managing expectations and providing updates on the progress of the release.

Importance of Feature Freeze

The importance of feature freeze in software development cannot be overstated:

  1. Risk Mitigation: Feature freeze helps mitigate risks associated with last-minute changes, reducing the likelihood of introducing new defects or breaking existing functionality.
  2. Quality Assurance: It allows the quality assurance team to focus on thorough testing and validation, ensuring a stable and reliable software release.
  3. Predictable Releases: Feature freeze contributes to predictable release schedules, making it easier for stakeholders and users to plan and prepare for the new software version.
  4. User Satisfaction: Delivering a stable and bug-free software release enhances user satisfaction and trust in the product.
  5. Resource Allocation: It enables efficient allocation of resources, with development efforts concentrated on addressing critical issues and improving software quality.

Strategies for Implementing Feature Freeze

Effective implementation of feature freeze requires strategic planning and execution:

  1. Define Clear Criteria: Establish clear criteria and guidelines for what constitutes a feature and what qualifies as a bug or issue that can be addressed during feature freeze.
  2. Set a Deadline: Determine a specific date or timeframe for the feature freeze phase, aligning it with the project schedule and release plan.
  3. Prioritize Issues: Prioritize and categorize issues based on their severity and impact on the software’s functionality and stability.
  4. Limit Exceptions: Strictly limit exceptions to the feature freeze rule. Only critical issues or security vulnerabilities should be considered for inclusion.
  5. Allocate Resources: Allocate development and testing resources to focus on addressing and validating the prioritized issues.
  6. Communication: Maintain open and transparent communication with the development team, quality assurance team, stakeholders, and users to keep everyone informed about the feature freeze phase’s progress and status.

Benefits of Feature Freeze

Feature freeze offers several benefits in the software development process:

  1. Stability: It provides a stable environment for thorough testing and quality assurance, reducing the chances of unexpected issues arising in the final release.
  2. Predictability: Feature freeze contributes to predictability in project timelines and release schedules, enabling better planning and coordination.
  3. Bug Resolution: By prioritizing bug fixes and issue resolution, feature freeze ensures that known defects are addressed before the release.
  4. Enhanced Focus: The development team can focus on refining and optimizing existing features rather than adding new ones, leading to improved software quality.
  5. Risk Reduction: Feature freeze minimizes the risk associated with last-minute feature changes, preventing disruptions to the release process.

Challenges and Considerations

While feature freeze is a valuable phase in software development, it also presents challenges and considerations:

  1. Balancing Priorities: Striking the right balance between addressing critical issues and maintaining the freeze on new features can be challenging.
  2. User Expectations: Managing user expectations during feature freeze is crucial, as users may have anticipated new features in the release.
  3. Resource Allocation: Allocating resources for rigorous testing and bug fixing requires careful planning and coordination.
  4. Communication: Effective communication with stakeholders and users is essential to ensure they understand the reasons for the feature freeze and the expected benefits.
  5. Change Management: Preparing the development team for the transition from feature development to issue resolution and quality assurance may require change management efforts.

Conclusion

Feature freeze is a pivotal phase in the software development process that ensures stability, quality, and predictability in software releases. By adhering to the core principles and best practices of feature freeze, development teams can reduce risks, improve software quality, and meet user expectations. While it presents challenges, effective feature freeze management contributes to the overall success of software development projects, fostering trust and satisfaction among stakeholders and users.

Key Highlights:

  • Foundations of Feature Freeze:
    • Integral phase in the software development lifecycle, occurring after feature development and testing.
    • Marks the point where no new features can be added to the project scope.
    • Relates closely to release planning and quality assurance efforts.
  • Core Principles:
    • Stability: Promotes stability by restricting changes to the existing codebase.
    • Prioritization: Critical issues take precedence over non-critical ones during feature freeze.
    • Testing and Validation: Rigorous testing ensures existing features are stable and reliable.
    • Communication: Open communication ensures all stakeholders are informed about the progress of the release.
  • Importance:
    • Risk Mitigation: Reduces risks associated with last-minute changes.
    • Quality Assurance: Allows focused testing and validation, ensuring a stable release.
    • Predictable Releases: Contributes to predictable release schedules.
    • User Satisfaction: Enhances user satisfaction by delivering a stable and bug-free release.
    • Resource Allocation: Enables efficient allocation of resources for issue resolution and quality improvement.
  • Strategies for Implementation:
    • Define Clear Criteria: Establish clear guidelines for what qualifies as a feature or bug.
    • Set a Deadline: Determine a specific timeframe for the feature freeze phase.
    • Prioritize Issues: Address critical issues first, based on their severity.
    • Limit Exceptions: Strictly limit exceptions to the feature freeze rule.
    • Allocate Resources: Focus development and testing efforts on addressing prioritized issues.
    • Communication: Maintain transparent communication with all stakeholders throughout the process.
  • Benefits:
    • Stability: Provides a stable environment for thorough testing.
    • Predictability: Contributes to predictable project timelines.
    • Bug Resolution: Ensures known defects are addressed before release.
    • Enhanced Focus: Allows the team to refine existing features for improved quality.
    • Risk Reduction: Minimizes risks associated with last-minute changes.
  • Challenges and Considerations:
    • Balancing Priorities: Finding the right balance between addressing issues and maintaining the freeze on new features.
    • User Expectations: Managing user expectations regarding new features during the freeze phase.
    • Resource Allocation: Proper allocation of resources for testing and bug fixing.
    • Communication: Ensuring stakeholders understand the reasons and benefits of the feature freeze.
    • Change Management: Preparing the team for the transition from feature development to issue resolution.
  • Conclusion:
    • Feature freeze is crucial for stability, quality, and predictability in software releases.
    • Adhering to best practices ensures successful management of software development projects.
    • Despite challenges, effective feature freeze management contributes to project success and stakeholder satisfaction.
Related FrameworkDescriptionWhen to Apply
Feature FreezeFeature Freeze is a stage in software development where no new features are added to a product or project. It allows teams to focus solely on fixing bugs, stabilizing the codebase, and preparing for release. Feature Freeze typically occurs during the later stages of development, after major features have been implemented and tested. It ensures that the product is stable and ready for release by preventing changes that could introduce new bugs or destabilize the codebase.When nearing the end of a development cycle or preparing for a release. Feature Freeze is implemented to ensure that the software product is stable and ready for release by allowing teams to focus on bug fixing, quality assurance, and finalizing features. It helps prevent last-minute changes that could introduce new bugs or delays, and ensures that the product meets the desired quality standards before being released to customers or users.
Lead TimeLead Time measures the total duration from the moment a customer or stakeholder submits a request until it is delivered or fulfilled. It includes all stages of the development process, such as backlog grooming, planning, implementation, testing, and deployment. Lead Time provides insights into the overall responsiveness and efficiency of the development team in delivering value to customers.When analyzing the end-to-end process of delivering value to customers in Agile development. Lead Time is used by Agile teams, product owners, and stakeholders to understand the time it takes to deliver requested features or changes, identify areas for improvement, and optimize the development process for faster delivery and enhanced customer satisfaction.
Cycle Time EfficiencyCycle Time Efficiency measures the ratio of value-added time to total cycle time in a process. It provides insights into process efficiency and waste reduction opportunities. By improving Cycle Time Efficiency, organizations can streamline processes, reduce lead times, and deliver products or services more quickly and efficiently.When evaluating process efficiency and identifying opportunities for waste reduction. Cycle Time Efficiency is used in Lean manufacturing, Agile development, and process improvement initiatives to assess the effectiveness of processes, identify non-value-added activities, and implement strategies to streamline workflows and improve productivity.
ThroughputThroughput measures the rate at which a system, process, or team delivers output or completes tasks within a specific time period. It provides insights into system capacity, productivity, and performance. By optimizing throughput, organizations can increase efficiency, meet demand, and deliver value to customers more effectively.When assessing system or team productivity and capacity. Throughput metrics are used in Agile development, manufacturing, and operations management to monitor output rates, identify bottlenecks, and improve overall productivity. They help organizations set realistic performance goals, allocate resources effectively, and optimize workflows to meet customer demand and deliver products or services in a timely manner.
Value Stream MappingValue Stream Mapping is a visual tool used to analyze, design, and improve the flow of materials, information, and activities required to deliver a product or service to customers. It helps organizations visualize end-to-end process flows, identify opportunities for improvement, and optimize workflows to enhance efficiency and customer value.When analyzing and improving end-to-end process flows and cycle times. Value Stream Mapping is used in Lean manufacturing, Agile development, and service industries to identify waste, streamline processes, and improve overall efficiency and performance. It helps organizations visualize process flows, identify bottlenecks, and implement changes to deliver products or services more quickly and effectively to customers.
Process Cycle EfficiencyProcess Cycle Efficiency measures the ratio of value-added time to total cycle time in a specific process. It provides insights into process effectiveness and waste reduction opportunities. By improving Process Cycle Efficiency, organizations can streamline processes, reduce lead times, and deliver products or services more quickly and efficiently.When evaluating process effectiveness and identifying opportunities for waste reduction. Process Cycle Efficiency metrics are used in Lean manufacturing, Agile development, and process improvement initiatives to assess the effectiveness of processes, identify non-value-added activities, and implement strategies to streamline workflows and improve productivity.
Process Lead TimeProcess Lead Time measures the total duration from the initiation of a process until its completion or delivery. It provides insights into the overall efficiency and responsiveness of a process in delivering value to customers. By reducing Process Lead Time, organizations can improve customer satisfaction, increase agility, and deliver products or services more quickly to the market.When analyzing the duration of specific processes and activities. Process Lead Time is used by organizations to assess process efficiency, identify bottlenecks, and optimize workflows to improve overall performance and responsiveness. It helps organizations measure and monitor the time it takes to complete tasks or deliverables, identify areas for improvement, and implement changes to enhance productivity and customer satisfaction.
Flow EfficiencyFlow Efficiency measures the ratio of value-added time to total cycle time in a specific process. It provides insights into process efficiency and waste reduction opportunities. By improving Flow Efficiency, organizations can streamline processes, reduce lead times, and deliver products or services more quickly and efficiently.When evaluating process efficiency and identifying opportunities for waste reduction. Flow Efficiency metrics are used in Lean manufacturing, Agile development, and process improvement initiatives to assess the effectiveness of processes, identify non-value-added activities, and implement strategies to streamline workflows and improve productivity.
Process Bottleneck AnalysisProcess Bottleneck Analysis is a method used to identify constraints or bottlenecks in a process that limit its capacity or throughput. It helps organizations identify opportunities to increase efficiency, reduce lead times, and optimize resource allocation to improve overall process performance.When analyzing process flow and identifying constraints that limit capacity or throughput. Process Bottleneck Analysis is used in Lean manufacturing, Agile development, and operations management to identify and address bottlenecks that hinder process efficiency and productivity. It helps organizations optimize resource allocation, streamline workflows, and improve overall process performance to meet customer demand and deliver value more effectively.
Work in Progress (WIP) LimitsWork in Progress (WIP) Limits are constraints placed on the number of tasks or items that can be actively worked on simultaneously in a process or workflow. They help prevent overloading and congestion, reduce multitasking, and improve flow efficiency.When managing workloads and optimizing flow in Agile development or Kanban workflows. WIP Limits are used in Agile development, Kanban, and Lean manufacturing to manage work in progress, balance workloads, and optimize flow efficiency. They help organizations prioritize tasks, limit multitasking, and maintain a steady flow of work to deliver value more effectively and efficiently to customers.

Connected Agile & Lean Frameworks

AIOps

aiops
AIOps is the application of artificial intelligence to IT operations. It has become particularly useful for modern IT management in hybridized, distributed, and dynamic environments. AIOps has become a key operational component of modern digital-based organizations, built around software and algorithms.

AgileSHIFT

AgileSHIFT
AgileSHIFT is a framework that prepares individuals for transformational change by creating a culture of agility.

Agile Methodology

agile-methodology
Agile started as a lightweight development method compared to heavyweight software development, which is the core paradigm of the previous decades of software development. By 2001 the Manifesto for Agile Software Development was born as a set of principles that defined the new paradigm for software development as a continuous iteration. This would also influence the way of doing business.

Agile Program Management

agile-program-management
Agile Program Management is a means of managing, planning, and coordinating interrelated work in such a way that value delivery is emphasized for all key stakeholders. Agile Program Management (AgilePgM) is a disciplined yet flexible agile approach to managing transformational change within an organization.

Agile Project Management

agile-project-management
Agile project management (APM) is a strategy that breaks large projects into smaller, more manageable tasks. In the APM methodology, each project is completed in small sections – often referred to as iterations. Each iteration is completed according to its project life cycle, beginning with the initial design and progressing to testing and then quality assurance.

Agile Modeling

agile-modeling
Agile Modeling (AM) is a methodology for modeling and documenting software-based systems. Agile Modeling is critical to the rapid and continuous delivery of software. It is a collection of values, principles, and practices that guide effective, lightweight software modeling.

Agile Business Analysis

agile-business-analysis
Agile Business Analysis (AgileBA) is certification in the form of guidance and training for business analysts seeking to work in agile environments. To support this shift, AgileBA also helps the business analyst relate Agile projects to a wider organizational mission or strategy. To ensure that analysts have the necessary skills and expertise, AgileBA certification was developed.

Agile Leadership

agile-leadership
Agile leadership is the embodiment of agile manifesto principles by a manager or management team. Agile leadership impacts two important levels of a business. The structural level defines the roles, responsibilities, and key performance indicators. The behavioral level describes the actions leaders exhibit to others based on agile principles. 

Andon System

andon-system
The andon system alerts managerial, maintenance, or other staff of a production process problem. The alert itself can be activated manually with a button or pull cord, but it can also be activated automatically by production equipment. Most Andon boards utilize three colored lights similar to a traffic signal: green (no errors), yellow or amber (problem identified, or quality check needed), and red (production stopped due to unidentified issue).

Bimodal Portfolio Management

bimodal-portfolio-management
Bimodal Portfolio Management (BimodalPfM) helps an organization manage both agile and traditional portfolios concurrently. Bimodal Portfolio Management – sometimes referred to as bimodal development – was coined by research and advisory company Gartner. The firm argued that many agile organizations still needed to run some aspects of their operations using traditional delivery models.

Business Innovation Matrix

business-innovation
Business innovation is about creating new opportunities for an organization to reinvent its core offerings, revenue streams, and enhance the value proposition for existing or new customers, thus renewing its whole business model. Business innovation springs by understanding the structure of the market, thus adapting or anticipating those changes.

Business Model Innovation

business-model-innovation
Business model innovation is about increasing the success of an organization with existing products and technologies by crafting a compelling value proposition able to propel a new business model to scale up customers and create a lasting competitive advantage. And it all starts by mastering the key customers.

Constructive Disruption

constructive-disruption
A consumer brand company like Procter & Gamble (P&G) defines “Constructive Disruption” as: a willingness to change, adapt, and create new trends and technologies that will shape our industry for the future. According to P&G, it moves around four pillars: lean innovation, brand building, supply chain, and digitalization & data analytics.

Continuous Innovation

continuous-innovation
That is a process that requires a continuous feedback loop to develop a valuable product and build a viable business model. Continuous innovation is a mindset where products and services are designed and delivered to tune them around the customers’ problem and not the technical solution of its founders.

Design Sprint

design-sprint
A design sprint is a proven five-day process where critical business questions are answered through speedy design and prototyping, focusing on the end-user. A design sprint starts with a weekly challenge that should finish with a prototype, test at the end, and therefore a lesson learned to be iterated.

Design Thinking

design-thinking
Tim Brown, Executive Chair of IDEO, defined design thinking as “a human-centered approach to innovation that draws from the designer’s toolkit to integrate the needs of people, the possibilities of technology, and the requirements for business success.” Therefore, desirability, feasibility, and viability are balanced to solve critical problems.

DevOps

devops-engineering
DevOps refers to a series of practices performed to perform automated software development processes. It is a conjugation of the term “development” and “operations” to emphasize how functions integrate across IT teams. DevOps strategies promote seamless building, testing, and deployment of products. It aims to bridge a gap between development and operations teams to streamline the development altogether.

Dual Track Agile

dual-track-agile
Product discovery is a critical part of agile methodologies, as its aim is to ensure that products customers love are built. Product discovery involves learning through a raft of methods, including design thinking, lean start-up, and A/B testing to name a few. Dual Track Agile is an agile methodology containing two separate tracks: the “discovery” track and the “delivery” track.

eXtreme Programming

extreme-programming
eXtreme Programming was developed in the late 1990s by Ken Beck, Ron Jeffries, and Ward Cunningham. During this time, the trio was working on the Chrysler Comprehensive Compensation System (C3) to help manage the company payroll system. eXtreme Programming (XP) is a software development methodology. It is designed to improve software quality and the ability of software to adapt to changing customer needs.

Feature-Driven Development

feature-driven-development
Feature-Driven Development is a pragmatic software process that is client and architecture-centric. Feature-Driven Development (FDD) is an agile software development model that organizes workflow according to which features need to be developed next.

Gemba Walk

gemba-walk
A Gemba Walk is a fundamental component of lean management. It describes the personal observation of work to learn more about it. Gemba is a Japanese word that loosely translates as “the real place”, or in business, “the place where value is created”. The Gemba Walk as a concept was created by Taiichi Ohno, the father of the Toyota Production System of lean manufacturing. Ohno wanted to encourage management executives to leave their offices and see where the real work happened. This, he hoped, would build relationships between employees with vastly different skillsets and build trust.

GIST Planning

gist-planning
GIST Planning is a relatively easy and lightweight agile approach to product planning that favors autonomous working. GIST Planning is a lean and agile methodology that was created by former Google product manager Itamar Gilad. GIST Planning seeks to address this situation by creating lightweight plans that are responsive and adaptable to change. GIST Planning also improves team velocity, autonomy, and alignment by reducing the pervasive influence of management. It consists of four blocks: goals, ideas, step-projects, and tasks.

ICE Scoring

ice-scoring-model
The ICE Scoring Model is an agile methodology that prioritizes features using data according to three components: impact, confidence, and ease of implementation. The ICE Scoring Model was initially created by author and growth expert Sean Ellis to help companies expand. Today, the model is broadly used to prioritize projects, features, initiatives, and rollouts. It is ideally suited for early-stage product development where there is a continuous flow of ideas and momentum must be maintained.

Innovation Funnel

innovation-funnel
An innovation funnel is a tool or process ensuring only the best ideas are executed. In a metaphorical sense, the funnel screens innovative ideas for viability so that only the best products, processes, or business models are launched to the market. An innovation funnel provides a framework for the screening and testing of innovative ideas for viability.

Innovation Matrix

types-of-innovation
According to how well defined is the problem and how well defined the domain, we have four main types of innovations: basic research (problem and domain or not well defined); breakthrough innovation (domain is not well defined, the problem is well defined); sustaining innovation (both problem and domain are well defined); and disruptive innovation (domain is well defined, the problem is not well defined).

Innovation Theory

innovation-theory
The innovation loop is a methodology/framework derived from the Bell Labs, which produced innovation at scale throughout the 20th century. They learned how to leverage a hybrid innovation management model based on science, invention, engineering, and manufacturing at scale. By leveraging individual genius, creativity, and small/large groups.

Lean vs. Agile

lean-methodology-vs-agile
The Agile methodology has been primarily thought of for software development (and other business disciplines have also adopted it). Lean thinking is a process improvement technique where teams prioritize the value streams to improve it continuously. Both methodologies look at the customer as the key driver to improvement and waste reduction. Both methodologies look at improvement as something continuous.

Lean Startup

startup-company
A startup company is a high-tech business that tries to build a scalable business model in tech-driven industries. A startup company usually follows a lean methodology, where continuous innovation, driven by built-in viral loops is the rule. Thus, driving growth and building network effects as a consequence of this strategy.

Minimum Viable Product

minimum-viable-product
As pointed out by Eric Ries, a minimum viable product is that version of a new product which allows a team to collect the maximum amount of validated learning about customers with the least effort through a cycle of build, measure, learn; that is the foundation of the lean startup methodology.

Leaner MVP

leaner-mvp
A leaner MVP is the evolution of the MPV approach. Where the market risk is validated before anything else

Kanban

kanban
Kanban is a lean manufacturing framework first developed by Toyota in the late 1940s. The Kanban framework is a means of visualizing work as it moves through identifying potential bottlenecks. It does that through a process called just-in-time (JIT) manufacturing to optimize engineering processes, speed up manufacturing products, and improve the go-to-market strategy.

Jidoka

jidoka
Jidoka was first used in 1896 by Sakichi Toyoda, who invented a textile loom that would stop automatically when it encountered a defective thread. Jidoka is a Japanese term used in lean manufacturing. The term describes a scenario where machines cease operating without human intervention when a problem or defect is discovered.

PDCA Cycle

pdca-cycle
The PDCA (Plan-Do-Check-Act) cycle was first proposed by American physicist and engineer Walter A. Shewhart in the 1920s. The PDCA cycle is a continuous process and product improvement method and an essential component of the lean manufacturing philosophy.

Rational Unified Process

rational-unified-process
Rational unified process (RUP) is an agile software development methodology that breaks the project life cycle down into four distinct phases.

Rapid Application Development

rapid-application-development
RAD was first introduced by author and consultant James Martin in 1991. Martin recognized and then took advantage of the endless malleability of software in designing development models. Rapid Application Development (RAD) is a methodology focusing on delivering rapidly through continuous feedback and frequent iterations.

Retrospective Analysis

retrospective-analysis
Retrospective analyses are held after a project to determine what worked well and what did not. They are also conducted at the end of an iteration in Agile project management. Agile practitioners call these meetings retrospectives or retros. They are an effective way to check the pulse of a project team, reflect on the work performed to date, and reach a consensus on how to tackle the next sprint cycle. These are the five stages of a retrospective analysis for effective Agile project management: set the stage, gather the data, generate insights, decide on the next steps, and close the retrospective.

Scaled Agile

scaled-agile-lean-development
Scaled Agile Lean Development (ScALeD) helps businesses discover a balanced approach to agile transition and scaling questions. The ScALed approach helps businesses successfully respond to change. Inspired by a combination of lean and agile values, ScALed is practitioner-based and can be completed through various agile frameworks and practices.

SMED

smed
The SMED (single minute exchange of die) method is a lean production framework to reduce waste and increase production efficiency. The SMED method is a framework for reducing the time associated with completing an equipment changeover.

Spotify Model

spotify-model
The Spotify Model is an autonomous approach to scaling agile, focusing on culture communication, accountability, and quality. The Spotify model was first recognized in 2012 after Henrik Kniberg, and Anders Ivarsson released a white paper detailing how streaming company Spotify approached agility. Therefore, the Spotify model represents an evolution of agile.

Test-Driven Development

test-driven-development
As the name suggests, TDD is a test-driven technique for delivering high-quality software rapidly and sustainably. It is an iterative approach based on the idea that a failing test should be written before any code for a feature or function is written. Test-Driven Development (TDD) is an approach to software development that relies on very short development cycles.

Timeboxing

timeboxing
Timeboxing is a simple yet powerful time-management technique for improving productivity. Timeboxing describes the process of proactively scheduling a block of time to spend on a task in the future. It was first described by author James Martin in a book about agile software development.

Scrum

what-is-scrum
Scrum is a methodology co-created by Ken Schwaber and Jeff Sutherland for effective team collaboration on complex products. Scrum was primarily thought for software development projects to deliver new software capability every 2-4 weeks. It is a sub-group of agile also used in project management to improve startups’ productivity.

Scrumban

scrumban
Scrumban is a project management framework that is a hybrid of two popular agile methodologies: Scrum and Kanban. Scrumban is a popular approach to helping businesses focus on the right strategic tasks while simultaneously strengthening their processes.

Scrum Anti-Patterns

scrum-anti-patterns
Scrum anti-patterns describe any attractive, easy-to-implement solution that ultimately makes a problem worse. Therefore, these are the practice not to follow to prevent issues from emerging. Some classic examples of scrum anti-patterns comprise absent product owners, pre-assigned tickets (making individuals work in isolation), and discounting retrospectives (where review meetings are not useful to really make improvements).

Scrum At Scale

scrum-at-scale
Scrum at Scale (Scrum@Scale) is a framework that Scrum teams use to address complex problems and deliver high-value products. Scrum at Scale was created through a joint venture between the Scrum Alliance and Scrum Inc. The joint venture was overseen by Jeff Sutherland, a co-creator of Scrum and one of the principal authors of the Agile Manifesto.

Six Sigma

six-sigma
Six Sigma is a data-driven approach and methodology for eliminating errors or defects in a product, service, or process. Six Sigma was developed by Motorola as a management approach based on quality fundamentals in the early 1980s. A decade later, it was popularized by General Electric who estimated that the methodology saved them $12 billion in the first five years of operation.

Stretch Objectives

stretch-objectives
Stretch objectives describe any task an agile team plans to complete without expressly committing to do so. Teams incorporate stretch objectives during a Sprint or Program Increment (PI) as part of Scaled Agile. They are used when the agile team is unsure of its capacity to attain an objective. Therefore, stretch objectives are instead outcomes that, while extremely desirable, are not the difference between the success or failure of each sprint.

Toyota Production System

toyota-production-system
The Toyota Production System (TPS) is an early form of lean manufacturing created by auto-manufacturer Toyota. Created by the Toyota Motor Corporation in the 1940s and 50s, the Toyota Production System seeks to manufacture vehicles ordered by customers most quickly and efficiently possible.

Total Quality Management

total-quality-management
The Total Quality Management (TQM) framework is a technique based on the premise that employees continuously work on their ability to provide value to customers. Importantly, the word “total” means that all employees are involved in the process – regardless of whether they work in development, production, or fulfillment.

Waterfall

waterfall-model
The waterfall model was first described by Herbert D. Benington in 1956 during a presentation about the software used in radar imaging during the Cold War. Since there were no knowledge-based, creative software development strategies at the time, the waterfall method became standard practice. The waterfall model is a linear and sequential project management framework. 

Read Also: Continuous Innovation, Agile Methodology, Lean Startup, Business Model Innovation, Project Management.

Read Next: Agile Methodology, Lean Methodology, Agile Project Management, Scrum, Kanban, Six Sigma.

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