Iterative and incremental development

File:Agile Project Management by Planbox.pngThe basic idea behind this method is to develop a system through repeated cycles (iterative) and in smaller portions at a time (incremental), allowing software developers to take advantage of what was learned during development of earlier parts or versions of the system. Learning comes from both the development and use of the system, where possible key steps in the process start with a simple implementation of a subset of the software requirements and iteratively enhance the evolving versions until the full system is implemented. At each iteration, design modifications are made and new functional capabilities are added.{{Cite web|url=https://technologyconversations.com/2014/01/21/software-development-models-iterative-and-incremental-development/|title=Software Development Models: Iterative and Incremental Development|first=Viktor|last=Farcic|date=January 21, 2014|website=Technology Conversations}}

The procedure itself consists of the initialization step, the iteration step, and the Project Control List. The initialization step creates a base version of the system. The goal for this initial implementation is to create a product to which the user can react. It should offer a sampling of the key aspects of the problem and provide a solution that is simple enough to understand and implement easily. To guide the iteration process, a project control list is created that contains a record of all tasks that need to be performed. It includes items such as new features to be implemented and areas of redesign of the existing solution. The control list is constantly being revised as a result of the analysis phase.

An iteration involves redesign and implementation, which is meant to be simple, straightforward, and modular, supporting redesign at that stage or as a future task added to the project control list.{{Clarify|date=October 2018}} The level of design detail is not dictated by the iterative approach. In a light-weight iterative project the code may represent the major source of documentation of the system; however, in a critical iterative project a formal Software Design Document may be used. The analysis of an iteration is based upon user feedback and the program analysis facilities available. It involves analysis of the structure, modularity, usability, reliability, efficiency, and achievement of goals. The project control list is modified in light of the analysis results.

Image:Development-iterative.png

Incremental development slices the system functionality into increments (portions). In each increment, a slice of functionality is delivered through cross-discipline work, from the requirements to the deployment. The Unified Process groups increments/iterations into phases: inception, elaboration, construction, and transition.

• Inception identifies project scope, requirements (functional and non-functional) and risks at a high level but in enough detail that work can be estimated.
• Elaboration delivers a working architecture that mitigates the top risks and fulfills the non-functional requirements.
• Construction incrementally fills-in the architecture with production-ready code produced from analysis, design, implementation, and testing of the functional requirements.
• Transition delivers the system into the production operating environment.

Each of the phases may be divided into 1 or more iterations, which are usually time-boxed rather than feature-boxed. Architects and analysts work one iteration ahead of developers and testers to keep their work-product backlog full.

Many examples of early usage are provided in Craig Larman and Victor Basili's article "Iterative and Incremental Development: A Brief History",[http://doi.ieeecomputersociety.org/10.1109/MC.2003.1204375 Iterative and Incremental Development: A Brief History], Craig Larman and Victor Basili, IEEE Computer, June 2003 with one of the earliest being NASA's 1960s Project Mercury.

Some of those Mercury engineers later formed a new division within IBM, where "another early and striking example of a major IID success [was] the very heart of NASA’s space shuttle software—the primary avionics software system, which [they] built from 1977 to 1980. The team applied IID in a series of 17 iterations over 31 months, averaging around eight weeks per iteration. Their motivation for avoiding the waterfall life cycle was that the shuttle program’s requirements changed during the software development process."

Some organizations, such as the US Department of Defense, have a preference for iterative methodologies, starting with MIL-STD-498 "clearly encouraging evolutionary acquisition and IID".

The DoD Instruction 5000.2 released in 2000 stated a clear preference for IID:

There are two approaches, evolutionary and single step [waterfall], to full capability. An evolutionary approach is preferred. … [In this] approach, the ultimate capability delivered to the user is divided into two or more blocks, with increasing increments of capability...software development shall follow an iterative spiral development process in which continually expanding software versions are based on learning from earlier development. It can also be done in phases.

Recent revisions to DoDI 5000.02 no longer refer to "spiral development," but do advocate the general approach as a baseline for software-intensive development/procurement programs.{{cite web|last1=Kendall|first1=Frank|last2=Gilmore|first2=J. Michael|last3=Halvorsen|first3=Terry|title=Operation of the Defense Acquisition System|url=http://www.esd.whs.mil/Portals/54/Documents/DD/issuances/dodi/500002_dodi_2015.pdf|website=DoD Issuances|publisher=Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics|access-date=2017-08-09|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170809221013/http://www.esd.whs.mil/Portals/54/Documents/DD/issuances/dodi/500002_dodi_2015.pdf|archive-date=2017-08-09|pages=12–14|language=en|date=2017-02-02}} In addition, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) also employs an iterative and incremental developmental approach to its programming cycle to design, monitor, evaluate, learn and adapt international development projects with a project management approach that focuses on incorporating collaboration, learning, and adaptation strategies to iterate and adapt programming.USAID. [https://www.usaid.gov/sites/default/files/documents/1870/201.pdf "ADS Chapter 201 Program Cycle Operational Policy"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191023195937/https://www.usaid.gov/sites/default/files/documents/1870/201.pdf |date=2019-10-23 }}. Retrieved April 19, 2017

While the term iterative and incremental development got started in the software industry, many hardware and embedded software development efforts are using iterative and incremental techniques.

Examples of this may be seen in a number of industries. One sector that has recently been substantially affected by this shift of thinking has been the space launch industry, with substantial new competitive forces at work brought about by faster and more extensive technology innovation brought to bear by the formation of private companies pursuing space launch. These companies, such as SpaceX{{cite news |last=Belfiore |first=Michael |title=The Rocketeer |url=https://foreignpolicy.com/articles/2013/12/02/the_rocketeer_elon_musk |newspaper=Foreign Policy |date=9 December 2013 |access-date=11 November 2018 |archive-date=10 December 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131210233009/http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2013/12/02/the_rocketeer_elon_musk |url-status=dead }} and Rocket Lab,{{cite news |url=https://everydayastronaut.com/inside-rocketlab/ |title=Exclusive Inside Look at Rocket Lab's Previously-secret new Mega Factory! |work=Everyday Astronaut |date=11 October 2018 |access-date=11 November 2018 |archive-date=12 October 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181012134827/https://everydayastronaut.com/inside-rocketlab/ |url-status=dead }} are now both providing commercial orbital launch services in the past decade, something that only six nations had done prior to a decade

{{cite web |last=Clark|first=Stephen |title=Sweet Success at Last for Falcon 1 Rocket |date=28 September 2008 |work=Spaceflight Now |url=http://www.spaceflightnow.com/falcon/004/index.html |access-date=11 November 2018 |quote=the first privately developed liquid-fueled rocket to successfully reach orbit.}} ago. New innovation in technology development approaches, pricing, and service offerings—including the ability that has existed only since 2016 to fly to space on a previously flown (reusable) booster stage—further decreasing the price of obtaining access to space.

{{cite news |last=Berger|first=Eric |url=https://arstechnica.com/science/2018/06/russias-proton-rocket-which-predates-apollo-will-finally-stop-flying/ |title=Russia's Proton rocket, which predates Apollo, will finally stop flying Technical problems, rise of SpaceX are contributing factors. |work=arsTechica |date=2018-06-25 |access-date=2018-06-26 |quote=the rapid rise of low-cost alternatives such as SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket, have caused the number of Proton launches in a given year to dwindle from eight or so to just one or two. }}

SpaceX has been explicit about its effort to bring iterative design practices into the space industry, and uses the technique on spacecraft, launch vehicles, electronics and avionics, and operational flight hardware operations.

{{cite news |last=Fernholz|first=Tim |url=https://qz.com/281619/what-it-took-for-elon-musks-spacex-to-disrupt-boeing-leapfrog-nasa-and-become-a-serious-space-company/ |title=What it took for Elon Musk's SpaceX to disrupt Boeing, leapfrog NASA, and become a serious space company |work=Quartz |date=21 October 2014 |access-date=11 November 2018 |quote=But SpaceX always thought of itself as a tech firm, and its clashes with NASA often took a form computer developers—or anyone familiar with the troubled roll-out of healthcare.gov—would recognize as generational. SpaceX followed an iterative design process, continually improving prototypes in response to testing. Traditional product management calls for a robust plan executed to completion, a recipe for cost overruns. }}

As the industry has begun to change, other launch competitors are beginning to change their long-term development practices with government agencies as well. For example, the large US launch service provider United Launch Alliance (ULA) began in 2015 a decade-long project to restructure its launch business—reducing two launch vehicles to one—using an iterative and incremental approach to get to a partially-reusable and much lower-cost launch system over the next decade.

{{cite news |last1=Gruss|first1=Mike |title=Evolution of a Plan : ULA Execs Spell Out Logic Behind Vulcan Design Choices |url=http://spacenews.com/evolution-of-a-plan-ula-execs-spell-out-logic-behind-vulcan-design-choices/ |access-date=25 April 2015 |work=Space News |date=2015-04-24 |quote=ULA’s April 13 announcement that it would develop a rocket dubbed Vulcan using an incremental approach whose first iteration essentially is an Atlas 5 outfitted with a new first stage.}}

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• Adaptive management
• Agile software development
• Continuous integration
• {{section link|DevOps|Incremental adoption}}
• Dynamic systems development method
• Goal-Driven Software Development Process
• Interaction design
• Kaizen
• Microsoft Solutions Framework
• Object-oriented analysis and design
• PDCA
• Rapid application development
• Release early, release often

{{Div col end}}

{{Reflist}}

{{More footnotes needed|date=September 2010}}

• {{Cite journal

|author = Dr. Alistair Cockburn

|title = Using Both Incremental and Iterative Development

|journal = STSC CrossTalk

|pages = 27{{ndash}}30

|volume = 21

|issue = 5

|date = May 2008

|publisher = USAF Software Technology Support Center

|issn = 2160-1593

|url = http://www.crosstalkonline.org/storage/issue-archives/2008/200805/200805-Cockburn.pdf

|access-date = 2011-07-20

|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20120526153630/http://www.crosstalkonline.org/storage/issue-archives/2008/200805/200805-Cockburn.pdf

|archive-date = 2012-05-26

|url-status = dead

}}

• {{Cite journal

| author = Craig Larman, Victor R. Basili

| title = Iterative and Incremental Development: A Brief History

| journal = IEEE Computer

| pages = 47{{ndash}}56

| volume = 36

| issue = 6

|date=June 2003

| publisher = IEEE Computer Society

| issn = 0018-9162

| doi = 10.1109/MC.2003.1204375

| s2cid = 9240477

| url = http://www.craiglarman.com/wiki/downloads/misc/history-of-iterative-larman-and-basili-ieee-computer.pdf

| access-date = 2009-01-10

}}

{{Software engineering}}

Category:Software development philosophies

Category:Software project management