The Evolutionary Development Phase

This is one of the six phases in the DSDM^® Process, which can be configured in different ways to create various types of lifecycle for the project.

graph TD rp(Pre-Project) --> fs(Feasibility) fs --> fn(Foundations) fn --> ed(Evolutionary Development) ed --> dp(Deployment) dp --> ed dp --> fn dp -.-> fs dp --> sp(Post-Project) style ed fill:#000,stroke:#000,color:#fff

This phase is where we develop the product iteratively and create increments of it. (See the build incrementally from firm foundations principle.) Following the deliver on time and develop iteratively principles, our development is done in timeboxes which have fixed durations: We repeat our development processes.

The evolutionary development phase uses many techniques/practices such as MoSCoW Prioritization, modeling, and facilitated workshops.

The development that we talk about in this context contains all aspects of development, including testing: We have iterative development, where all development processes are repeated. This is so, because we want the output to be complete and able to generate useful feedback.

Even though the output of the evolutionary development phase is so complete that it can be put into production without much extra work, we don’t do it after each iteration because deployment needs to be aligned with the business aspects outside the project. As a result, there’s a deployment phase for putting the latest increment into production.

Written by Nader K. Rad

This is (and will be) a work in progress: More details will be added in the future, depending on the feedback.

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