Scrum Terminology: What is the Difference Between a New Feature and an Enhancement?

Levi Hackwith picture Levi Hackwith · Dec 19, 2014 · Viewed 8.6k times · Source

The main thing I'm trying to answer is this: What are the distinguishing features between a "new feature" and a "product enhancement" when it comes to software development? Specifically, when applied to Scrum.

Here are some possible criteria that come to mind:

  1. The complexity of the request (points)
  2. How independent the final result will be from other parts of the application (e.g., adding a field to form vs adding a whole new form)

The other possibility is that I'm thinking about this all wrong and there's better, clearer terminology that should be used.

Answer

Christian Frommeyer picture Christian Frommeyer · Dec 19, 2014

I guess this cannot be answered in a generally accepted way. However this is how I would put it:

A feature is new functionality i.e. a user can do something new with the software. An enhancement makes doing something that was possible before simpler, more powerful or adds somehow to existing functionality.