Benefits of Iterative Development
Benefits of iterative development include:
- early rather than late mitigation of high risks (technical, requirements,
objectives, usability, and so forth)
- early visible progress
- early feedback, user engagement, and adaptation, leading to a refined system that more closely meets the real needs of the stakeholders
- managed complexity; the team is not overwhelmed by "analysis paralysis" or
very long and complex steps
- the learning within an iteration can be methodically used to improve the
development process itself, iteration by iteration
The UP Phases and Schedule-Oriented Terms
A UP project organizes the work and iterations across four major phases:
- Inception— approximate vision, business case, scope, vague estimates.
- Elaboration—refined vision, iterative implementation of the core architec
ture, resolution of high risks, identification of most requirements and scope,
more realistic estimates.
- Construction—iterative implementation of the remaining lower risk and
easier elements, and preparation for deployment.
- Transition—beta tests, deployment.

