Now that we've got you through the foundations of setting up your Agile team, this chapter is where we start to look at the "secret sauce" of Agile.

The adage "people don't know what they want until they see it" is just as true in the software industry as any other. The sooner we can deliver something useful to our customer, the earlier they can use it in a real-world environment, and the sooner we will be able to gather feedback on whether we're on the right track. 

People often talk about Agile "speeding up" delivery, which it usually does. But this doesn't necessarily mean we deliver the same set of requirements at a faster pace just by working overtime. Working longer hours is an option, but it is not sustainable over an extended period. Instead, delivery in an Agile context means we become smarter in terms of how to deliver the same set of requirements; this is how we speed up.

How we build and deliver software will make a big difference to whether we successfully give our customers something they need.

In this chapter, we'll look at techniques for getting early confirmation that our ideas are solving the problems we've been asked to address.

We'll look at three different methods, which can be implemented individually or combined, to help us deliver in a smarter way.

These are topics we'll cover:

• Implementing incremental delivery in Agile:
  • Working with software in small, manageable chunks
  • How to make use of inspecting and adapting in your Scrum ceremonies
  • The importance of UX
  • Shifting left
• Introducing some Lean thinking to improve flow:
  • Systems thinking: Optimizing the system as a whole, not locally
  • Changing our workflow by managing the work in progress
  • Developing a mindset for continuous process improvement
• Adopting Lean Startup principles to validate product ideas sooner:
  
  • Build, Measure, Learn: Learning rapidly by doing and failing fast