The steady state is an important concept for development and project planning. Agile view it differently with another backlog of change. We should learn how to manage this by considering it in our planning or development.
Development
The development of new features are less constant than existing ones. At this stage, requirements are less clear. Bugs are common and affects the data integrity. A huge scope will require more time to be stable. One strategy is to adopt use case for quicker steady state rather than going for a full suites of product.
Achieving Stability
The priority is to achieve stability and set a baseline on which you can enhance. Some called it versioning. You can group the changes and manage stability at a steady state. You need to establish measurements for stability. Monitoring and maintenance are part of your processes to achieve stability.
A stable system is at its steady state. Data will be less likely to be affected by timing issues. You should always achieve steady state before embarking on the next change. This requires planning and understanding of the relationships of change and steady state.
Danny Kwok 