{"id":5003221,"date":"2015-12-16T22:48:36","date_gmt":"2015-12-17T06:48:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aadev22.local\/?post_type=aa_glossary&p=5003221"},"modified":"2023-03-12T12:41:02","modified_gmt":"2023-03-12T19:41:02","slug":"iterative-development","status":"publish","type":"aa_glossary","link":"https:\/\/agilealliance.org\/glossary\/iterative-development\/","title":{"rendered":"Iterative Development"},"content":{"rendered":"

Agile projects are iterative insofar as they intentionally allow for \u201crepeating\u201d software development activities, and for potentially \u201crevisiting\u201d the same work products (the phrase \u201cplanned rework\u201d is sometimes used;\u00a0refactoring<\/a>\u00a0is a good example).<\/p>\n

They are iterative in a third, less essential sense, in being most often structured around a series of\u00a0iterations<\/a>\u00a0of fixed calendar length. However, some Agile approaches to scheduling,\u00a0such as Kanban<\/a>\u00a0do away with iterations in this later sense, but retain the other aspects of multiple repetitions and planned rework.<\/p>\n

Nearly all Agile projects are\u00a0incremental<\/a> as well as iterative. However, it is possible to use iterative strategies which are not also incremental; for instance, a \u201cbuild it twice\u201d strategy in which one first creates a throwaway prototype to gather user feedback, then uses insights from that experience to build the \u201creal thing\u201d. Prototyping is necessarily an iterative strategy and may have been a precursor to the development of iterative software development ideas.<\/p>\n

Origins<\/h2>\n

The idea of iterative development predates Agile \u2013 by at least a decade or two.<\/p>\n