Progress Principle

Adoption and acceptance of agile is always helped when teams begin to build and deliver working product in frequent intervals. In most cases, this is done by delivering a new product increment every iteration. What's interesting, is that delivering regularly to the Product Owner/Customer has been, in my experience, one of the best ways to circumvent resistance to making the change to agile methods. Here's some research published in the Harvard Business Review that supports this.


"...Watson and Crick’s progress—or lack thereof—ruled their reactions. In our recent research on creative work inside businesses, we stumbled upon a remarkably similar phenomenon. Through exhaustive analysis of diaries kept by knowledge workers, we discovered theprogress principle: Of all the things that can boost emotions, motivation, and perceptions during a workday, the single most important is making progress in meaningful work. And the more frequently people experience that sense of progress, the more likely they are to be creatively productive in the long run. Whether they are trying to solve a major scientific mystery or simply produce a high-quality product or service, everyday progress—even a small win—can make all the difference in how they feel and perform." 


From - The Power of Small Wins

Not only do mature agile teams deliver working product every iteration, they complete individual tasks every day visibly illustrating progress to the team and other stakeholders. Keep your delivery frequency short and make sure your tasks are meaningful and  small enough to be completed in a day.

Quick wins lead to success.