this is where it becomes crucial to know why you're building the thing you're building. That way, you can often structure the project in phases according to you

this is where it becomes crucial to know why you're building the thing you're building. That way, you can often structure the project in phases according to your engineering judgement of the way those phases are built and the business value they enable. Then you can cut scope by postponing (or not doing) some of the phases. Ideally.