Releasing Investments

This chapter begins with new insights into the opportunity cost of bundled releases based on Net Cost of Delay. Quantifiable Cost of Delay allows us to calculate the income lost by delaying a completed Investment to the release date. This chapter examines the reasons why large releases persist despite the industry transition to Agile development. It also describes why many customers won’t accept releases more frequently even if a company can reduce development cycle time, and how to overcome their reluctance and Work in Process. Continuous Delivery is not widespread in the software industry, especially in larger organizations that have traditionally delivered periodic releases. There are several pricing models for SaaS pricing, such as user‐based and tier‐based pricing. Modular releases also pose configuration management challenges. The Investment model reveals release opportunity costs to justify development of infrastructure, tools, and processes to release individual Investments.