Project Management: Delivery Cadence
While some of the different delivery cadence methods are pretty starkly different, there is some overlap amongst them that might feel a little tricky when you’re trying to pick the right one for your project. Iterative vs incremental vs multiple delivery. What makes a product single delivery vs iterative? Here’s a very quick and very simple review.
Single Delivery
With a single delivery, you’re getting one finished product at the end of the project. Even if you’re getting approval along they way at various milestones, there is still only one finished and usable ‘thing’ that is delivered at the end. You would use a single delivery when the scope is clearly defined and pretty straightforward. There isn’t a lot of testing or experimenting involved. You aren’t able to deliver part of it that can be used right away - it’s essentially unusable until the whole thing is done. Think building a house. Yes, you might need to check with the homebuyers or whoever commissioned the build as you go to make sure it’s looking how they want, but you know how to build a house (right?), and they can’t use it until it’s done.
Multiple Delivery
Just like with a single delivery, there’s only one ‘final’ product, but that final product may have to be submitted several times and it has to be the ‘final product’ each time. Think a new pharmaceuticle drug. You can’t test half of the drug. You can’t say ‘here’s the most important part of it - start taking that and we’ll give you the rest when we finish it’. You have to make the complete drug, and then submit it to phase 1 testing. Then 2. Then trials. Yada yada yada until it’s eventual full release. You may have to go back to the drawing board through the process of submissions, but you’re still submitting the ‘final’ product with the intention of it being the final product.
Incremental Delivery
With incremental delivery, you’re focused on delivering the most valuable part of the project ASAP. You want to get the customer 80% of the value right away. After that, you can continue to delivery on additional functions and features. The Sims 4 is an incremental delivery cadence product. They made the basegame first which accounts for 80% of the game play and you need to do anything else. After that, additional packs, expansions, and patches are released to add functionality to the game you’re already using. This is common for apps, games, and other software.
Iterative Delivery
The most common for a new product the requires testing, prototyping, and feedback in order to get to the final product. If a brewery is making a new beer, they’ll brew several different batches (iterations) and send each one through quality control and taste-testing in order to get the profile correct. They will need to try different recipes to make sure the ingredients and process land them at the correct price point. They will need to experiment with packaging for that specific beer to test the shelf like and stability. Eventually, after several batches, it make its way to your local stores. Yes, it’s also the approach for new tech products but aren’t you sick of every single example in PMP stuff being software and tech?
