Without sufficient guardrails, accelerating change in software sees engineering capacity consumed, risking roadmap stability when unplanned work grows.
Companies face ever-increasing threats from competition. Margin pressures fuel the drive to get a product to market quicker. This is a natural desire in a business.
Demand often outpaces what can be delivered, and that pressure can manifest as an eagerness to jump in. Decisions and planning are compressed, priorities are reorganised based on urgency, and tasks get deferred.
By the time 80% of the work is done, the remaining 20% is mostly expensive deferred decisions, but by now, the project’s form is too rigid.
Impacts the business feels:
Often preceded by warning signs:
Sure, key stakeholders enjoy brief success. You shipped ahead of expectations, the sales increase, you got ahead of your competitor, you built some momentum. Eventually, customer trust erodes, and engineering capacity declines. Those rushed decisions at the birth of your project are dragging you back.
Some senior leaders will see it differently, launch now - quality later. These leaders probably have unknown guardrails. That approach tends to work when there are implicit controls, like:
If you need to build a lot of momentum, make sure you have guardrails. Scale your validation with your output, design for supportability early, and watch what's consuming engineering budgets.
Nobody should accept what they can’t understand. If they do, they’re signing a contract without knowing the terms of the deal.