Agile expects Demos

If you're on a project that is more than a few months, make sure you do at least monthly demos. This will save your bacon. It buys you credibility.

We always produce production quality code - it must at least be demoable.

Who should you present to? Not your onsite customer. They are probably not the decision maker. Make sure the decision makers see them demo. They need to see the value of what you are developing.

Who should do the presentation? Your onsite customer.

When should you present? At least every month.

This has several ramifications:

1) It ensures decision makers are involved. Gantt charts make people feel comfortable, but they fail to convince. Demos provide concrete evidence of the small incremental steps of agile. It gives you credibility when you want to talk about problems.

2) It motivates production quality code. There is nothing better to motivate a team than to have a demo where things go badly. Usually the next demo goes quite well.

3) The onsite customer doing the demo avoids the smoke and mirrors temptations and expectations. An onsite customer won't stand for it. The decision makers will have more trust it isn't smoke and mirrors if their own people are presenting.