A software project fails slowly and then all at once. The slow part is usually invisible because progress is reported in percentages rather than demonstrated in software.
Our rule is that every second Friday there is a deployed environment a client can click through. Not slides, not a prototype, the actual application with real data flowing through it.
This constrains how we sequence work. You cannot build the data layer for six weeks and then start the interface, because there would be nothing to show. So we build thin vertical slices instead, one complete user journey at a time.
The uncomfortable part is that it makes problems visible early, in front of the client. A sprint where the demo is thin is a conversation nobody enjoys. It is also the conversation that saves the project.
Clients consistently tell us this is what distinguished the engagement. Not the technology choices, which they mostly do not care about, but knowing at all times exactly where the project stood.
