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:

1. Inception— approximate vision, business case, scope, vague estimates.
2. Elaboration—refined vision, iterative implementation of the core architec ture, resolution of high risks, identification of most requirements and scope, more realistic estimates.
3. Construction—iterative implementation of the remaining lower risk and easier elements, and preparation for deployment.
4. Transition—beta tests, deployment.