The natural tendency is to stretch out product releases or project durations, because the steps involved in releasing work to production seem to involve so much work. However, stretching out the time between releases is moving in exactly the wrong direction from a lean perspective. If a release seems to take a long time, don't stretch out releases. Find out what is causing all the time and address it. If something is difficult, do it more often, and you'll get a lot better at it.
