Dynamics of Software Development, Second Edition

Ship Mode: Transition

The transitional stage of ship mode can span one or more milestones, so you need to pace yourself and the team. The transition in this stage of ship mode is basically from implementation to endgame stabilization. Implementation is still going on, generally, until the final milestone. And the product keeps destabilizing under the influence of this implementation effort. Naturally, this reduces the intensity of ship mode. It can be exhausting to keep forcing the product into some kind of stable state so that ship mode can resume with greater force. During the transitional phase, people will increasingly feel that bug fixing should be the only activity going on, that whatever features remain unimplemented should be abandoned. ...