The Staged Delivery Plan is a description of all features
that
will be included in each release. Each feature needs to be precisely
described.
Ideally, it will refer to a requirement number from the specification
document.
However, if you didn't number your requirements, then you have to
explain
them with narrative.
The Staged Delivery Plan is a crucial document and must be agreed upon and signed off by the customer. Developers want to carefully determine what they are willing to commit to; use the budget and effort estimation techniques described in the Project Plan.
If a feature is going to be partially implemented, you need to describe the character of the functionality you plan to implement. One of the most common sources of confusion on student projects is uncertainty about whether a certain feature is supposed to be working yet. It is the job of this document, along with the Integration Plan, to eliminate that confusion.
Staged Delivery is discussed throughout the McConnell text and a simplistic example is shown on page 165. Staged Delivery is an antidote to the common but flawed "Alpha-Beta-Final" release strategy. Benefits of Staged Delivery are: