Release early, release often (also known as ship early, ship often, or time-based releases, and sometimes abbreviated RERO) is a software development philosophy that emphasizes the importance of early and frequent releases in creating a tight feedback loop between developers and testers or users, contrary to a feature-based release strategy. Advocates argue that this allows the software development to progress faster, enables the user to help define what the software will become, better conforms to the users' requirements for the software, and ultimately results in higher quality software. The development philosophy attempts to eliminate the risk of creating software that no one will use. This philosophy was popularized by Eric S. Raymond in his 1997 essay ''

The Cathedral and the Bazaar ''The Cathedral and the Bazaar: Musings on Linux and Open Source by an Accidental Revolutionary'' (abbreviated ''CatB'') is an essay, and later a book, by Eric S. Raymond on software engineering methods, based on his observations of the Linux ...

'', where Raymond stated "Release early. Release often. And listen to your customers". This philosophy was originally applied to the development of the

Linux kernel The Linux kernel is a Free and open-source software, free and open source Unix-like kernel (operating system), kernel that is used in many computer systems worldwide. The kernel was created by Linus Torvalds in 1991 and was soon adopted as the k ...

and other

open-source software Open-source software (OSS) is Software, computer software that is released under a Open-source license, license in which the copyright holder grants users the rights to use, study, change, and Software distribution, distribute the software an ...

, but has also been applied to

closed source Proprietary software is software that grants its creator, publisher, or other rightsholder or rightsholder partner a legal monopoly by modern copyright and intellectual property law to exclude the recipient from freely sharing the software or modi ...

, commercial software development. The alternative to the release early, release often philosophy is aiming to provide only polished, bug-free releases. Advocates of RERO question that this would in fact result in higher-quality releases. A critical aspect often debated regarding the "release early, release often" philosophy is the potential loss of quality due to continuous and rapid modifications. By prioritizing the frequency of releases over perfection, there is a risk of introducing undetected bugs or compromising the stability of the product. This can occur when development cycles are too accelerated, leaving limited time for thorough testing or refining features. Additionally, frequent changes may make it difficult to maintain consistency in the

user experience User experience (UX) is how a user interacts with and experiences a product, system or service. It includes a person's perceptions of utility, ease of use, and efficiency. Improving user experience is important to most companies, designers, a ...

, especially if updates significantly alter functionality or the interface. Therefore, while RERO encourages adaptability and rapid feedback, it also requires a careful balance to ensure that speed does not come at the expense of the software's overall quality.

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Release Early, Release Often
chapter of ''The Cathedral and the Bazaar'' by Eric S. Raymond Software development philosophies Software release {{Software-eng-stub

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