Verandr Philosophy

Create bite-sized projects

The bigger and more time consuming a project is, the higher the probability of failure. As project size increases, uncertainty grows exponentially. Assumptions, dependencies and other variables are all chained together to create something that looks like a good plan up-front, but gets fuzzier and fuzzier further down the timeline.

Long projects also delay celebration and lead to team fatigue. Any issues with quality are often left to the end of the project when it is too late. For customers, long projects mean a big commitment with little opportunity to pivot as circumstances change.

Design a path to success

Verandr’s philosophy is to take large projects and break them down into multiple smaller pieces of work, each delivering value in the form of a functioning piece of software. Each project should be around 2-3 weeks of work. It’s important to distinguish between agile sprints and actual projects. A project is not just 2-3 weeks of work grouped into an iteration. It is its own deliverable and should be self contained. The team should be able to say “we finished it” at the end of a project, without leftover tasks.

Prioritize value

Splitting work into smaller chunks helps us to prioritize the most valuable features first. In large projects, it’s easy to inadvertently sequence important functionality towards the end. But this means that value is not achieved until the entire scope of work is finished. Small projects force us to think about what’s most important and bring it forward.