Release early, release often

Release early, release often ( in German: publish early, publish often ) is a guiding principle in software development. He recommends the frequent publication of smaller software perimeters against rare, great volumes. Was coined the motto of Eric S. Raymond in his essay The Cathedral and the Bazaar in 1997.

Release early, release often was initially limited to open source, but there are also proprietary software according to the concept developed. The approach of the early delivery is a principle of agile process models such as Extreme Programming or Scrum.

Raymond's entire policy additionally contains the subordinate clause And listen to your customers, to German And listen to the user.

This approach has several advantages. The frequent publications stimulate a lively exchange between the users and the developers in the form of error messages and further development needs. Furthermore, the approach promotes a stable version, because the fix is due to practical error messages and not based on theoretical test cases of a test team. In addition, the approach significantly reduces the planning effort for large software developments.