Glossary
A minimum viable product is the smallest version that tests the riskiest assumption in a plan. It is an experiment with a question attached, not a cheap first release of the full idea.
Something has to be genuinely usable enough that the response to it means something; a demonstration nobody depends on produces polite feedback rather than evidence.
Scope grows because every stakeholder has one more thing that is obviously essential, and the result is a small version of everything rather than a complete version of the one thing being tested.
'We believe operations teams will accept an automated first pass if they can override it' is testable. 'We want to see if people like it' is not, and it produces a build with no criterion for having answered anything.
Small enough to answer one question, complete enough that someone genuinely depends on it. If nobody relies on it, the feedback is opinion rather than evidence.
Because each stakeholder adds one obviously essential thing. Naming the assumption being tested up front gives you a criterion for refusing additions that do not help answer it.
A minimum viable product is the smallest version that tests the riskiest assumption in a plan. It is an experiment with a question attached, not a cheap first release of the full idea.
