Key Principle: Deliver in Vertical Slices

For short sprints to work, teams need to develop the capability to deliver small chunks of working functionality on a frequent basis. The design approach used to support this is called “vertical slicing,” which refers to making changes in each architectural layer to deliver incremental functionality or value.

A vertical slice represents full stack functionality, such as “Add this field to a bank statement” or “Provide confirmation of the transaction to the user one second faster.” Each of these examples would typically require work throughout the technology stack, as illustrated below.