Iterative and incremental developments. a brief history
Abstract
Although many view iterative and incremental development as a modern practice, its application dates as far back as the mid-1950s. Prominent software-engineering thought leaders from each succeeding decade supported IID practices, and many large projects used them successfully. These practices may have differed in their details, but all had a common theme-to avoid a single-pass sequential, document-driven, gated-step approach.
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Each plan must both address outstanding problems and deliver a small yet concrete new capability, following the principle of iterative and incremental development.
“Each plan must both address outstanding problems and deliver a small yet concrete new capability, following the principle of iterative and incremental development [13].”
From Harness-of-Harness: Multi-Day Autonomous Software Development with Continual Improvement (2026) · cites this paper as [13]
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Harness-of-Harness: Multi-Day Autonomous Software Development with Continual Improvement
Yan, H., Su, M.-L., Zhang, H., Li, Z., Zhang, C., Zhang, S., Chen, Y., Bai, L., & Hu, S. (2026) · arXiv · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2609.01481
- Authors
- Larman, C., & Basili, V. R.
- Affiliations
- University of Maryland, College Park (US)
- ORCID
- Basili, V.R.
- Venue
- Computer
- Published
- 2003-06
- Volume
- 36
- Issue
- 6
- Pages
- 47-56
- ISSN
- 0018-9162 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2131399871
- Cited by
- 1,164
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2026: 25 · 2025: 30 · 2024: 26 · 2023: 46 · 2022: 46 · 2021: 62 · 2020: 56 · 2019: 55 · 2018: 50 · 2017: 64 · 2016: 48 · 2015: 70 · 2014: 90 · 2013: 96 · 2012: 68
- FWCI
- 80.66
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Computer (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Information Systems › Software Engineering Techniques and Practices
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Information Systems › Software Engineering Research
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Artificial Intelligence › Advanced Software Engineering Methodologies
- Keywords
- iterative incremental development, software engineering history, software development practices
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