A process by any other name

There are so many different development methodologies out there. I have worked with 3 steps and 4 phases and 8 cycles and 33 flavors. This does not include agile and user-centric methodologies. The names are changed to be unique and meaningful to those using the methodology and confuse those of us that need to work with more than 1.

When I was at EDS, I had to map the EDS 8 step System Life Cycle with the GM 4 phase System Development Process. They mostly matched up, but it took 6 months to get agreement.

I boil everything down to 3 buckets when laying out a project. Why are we doing this. What are we trying to do. How will it get accomplished. Another way to look at it is Think - Plan - Do. "Think" has been and could be called Phase 0, Discovery, Strategy, Concept or a Project Brief. "Plan" is answering the whats and developing "enough" detail to move on. "Do" is implementing the solution.

I will go into more detail for each of these in the coming days.

Are incremental and iterative the same?

Do sometimes we get confused with the terms Incremental and Iterative? They are not interchangeable although sometimes they are used that way.

Incremental is when we add an additional piece of function to an application without necessarily changing the already existing code.

Iterative is when we create a new version of an existing application that includes feedback or requirement changes from the previous version or iteration.

Why does this matter? Some development methodologies call themselves iterative when they are really incremental. This can be confusing, especially when your are also doing prototypes.