Incremental Development

By Miranda Dulin

Published in Glossary

October 11, 2023

1 min read

Definition of Incremental Development

Incremental Development is improving the product through small, independent, mostly polished pieces.

Back of a vocabulary card for the term Incremental Development

Example Sentence

Incremental development allowed us to build a complex system with small, manageable pieces.

Understanding Incremental Development is crucial for agile practitioners to differentiate it from Iterative Development. In Incremental Development, the entire product isn’t built all at once. Instead, it’s constructed through a series of stages, each adding new features or capabilities. It involves breaking down the project into distinct parts, completing and delivering these parts incrementally. This approach allows for the delivery of usable components or increments of the final product in stages.

However, it’s vital not to confuse Incremental Development with Iterative Development. While both entail progressive work, Iterative Development involves revisiting and refining the product through repetitive cycles, focusing on enhancing the existing features rather than adding new ones with each cycle.

For agile practitioners, understanding Incremental Development helps in delivering functional components of a product at different intervals, meeting user needs earlier in the development process. This approach ensures continuous value delivery and adapts to changing requirements, aligning with Agile principles of customer collaboration and responding to change effectively.