30. Iterating is Adapting

ITERATING IS NOT JUST REPEATING.

It’s about using the output and learning from one stage of the process to improve the output of the next stage.

Iterating is adapting, using information from the environment to achieve an improved result.

If we think of each iteration as an automatic repetition of tasks, we are thinking about it incompletely.

We iterate to have the opportunity to correct our course, to admit that we don’t know everything, and that complex problems require approaches, not prescriptive solutions.

If your last iteration respects the scope defined in the first, you’re not iterating. You’re breaking the project into smaller portions.

Iterating implies discovering the scope as you build.

In other words: iterations allow us to materialize and redefine the scope, while keeping the goal of solving a clear problem steadfast.

It’s unlikely that our understanding of the problem to be solved will be the same in iteration 1 as in iteration n. If we understand that this is the case, then: Why should the scope remain unchanged?