Rhythm and Cadence (Predictability) in a Project or Program is Hard to Come By

It's very desirable to get into a pattern where you plan, then work, then deliver, then review, then do it all over again. The goal is to limit interruptions and make things predictable. Let the people do their jobs and don't let the jobs conflict or adversely impact one another. Harmony is a good word here. Of course this would be nice but it's not always possible. These phases, people and interests often overlap and sometimes get out of sync.

My current work project has a fairly decent cadence but it is not perfect. Overall we're doing a pretty good job. We usually plan on Fridays and deliver on Fridays as well. We commit for the next week late Friday. This gives us a day to assess where we're at and what we're going to do next week; but of course these plans can get interrupted by changes in the following week. In our project, the policy is "what is committed is the sprint" and everything else is the backlog. If we finish the sprint early, then we can work off of the backlog items of course. We've been lucky to not have too many fires. Sometimes the sprint itself generates more backlog items.