Anatomy of an Iteration

Jared Spool dissects the iteration process...

Iterations are key to successful design. They help reduce risk by letting us get all the bad ideas out of our system early, keeping only the best of the best.

Unfortunately, we've found that many teams don't know how to iterate effectively. Good iteration is a deliberate activity, with four important stages: planning, implementing, measuring, and learning. The best teams focus on each stage appropriately, making sure they get the most out of it. While iterations can be very short, (we've seen teams that can iterate a dozen times in a single day,) the best teams don't short change any of the stages.