Do you have a 'Business Development Lifecycle'?

In software there's a concept called the 'Software Development Lifecycle'. If you're not interested in learning about that, you can jump to "The Question" below.

Software used to be built using the Waterfall style. In Waterfall development, you plan out the entire program up front. In the 80's they started to move toward a more iterative process. In the early 2000's, the Agile Manifesto was written. Agile spawned a number of dogmatic offshoots.

Agile is still the foundation of most software development (I think). In short, Agile is an iterative process where you plan 1 - 4 week 'sprints'. It's encouraged to have the software in a working, usable state at the end of every sprint. That allows the stakeholders to use the software, so that their feedback can guide development. You don't plan the whole thing end-to-end because you know the requirements are going to change during development.

You probably recognize these Agile principles. You may be using them without realizing it. I think most entrepreneurs have recognized the benefit (or necessity) of getting something on the market so that you don't build something that nobody wants.

During the Daily Sigh yesterday,

@Grant Füellenbach

mentioned sprints, and I realized that people without a software background may not know what that means nor apply it.

*The Question*

Do you apply any structure to how you plan and run your business? If not, do you think that may be useful to you? If you don't think it would be useful to you, why not?

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