Does the word ‘minimum’ immediately raise your hackles? This article emphasizes that learning to prioritize, getting to production early, and subsequently delivering in small increments are key disciplines in the practices of Agile and continuous delivery. The term Minimum Viable Product (MVP) has been around, in various forms, for a long time. I’ve also heard minimally marketable feature set (but who wants something that’s “minimally marketable”?), minimal feature set, minimum feature set and others.
Having the Minimum Viable Product is critical for getting early feedback. It’s crucial for testing the hypothesis that the software you’re delivering is really valuable. And it’s essential to any practice that depends on failing early, so you don’t end up with software projects that are “too big to fail.” Adult conversations about software projects involve real prioritisation, real collaboration, and real decisions. The MVP concept is all about promoting all three.
