Page 117 - DCAP304_DCAP515_SOFTWARE_PROJECT_MANAGEMENT

Unit 5: Project Approach

product versions. These will be improved to increase functionality or improve product quality Notes
in subsequent sub-projects. Incremental Delivery is the delivery of increments to the customer/
users at intervals throughout the project timescale.
Incremental delivery is a chief component of most software projects today – it permits us to
deliver the most valuable elements of a system first, which allows our customers to start getting
benefit from the system earlier. As extra features are developed, and additional use cases are
enabled, they are delivered to the customers, who get incremental value from those features.
This can have a significant impact on ROI projections for a project – and can be the dissimilarity
between getting the deal and losing it.

Visualize that we had an application with four main features providing 50, 25, 15 and 10 units
of ROI, and each taking one calendar quarter to develop. If we constrain the analysis for our
project to a two year payback period (not untypical with software projects), the return versus
time is both faster and higher if we delivered each feature incrementally than if we delivered all
features when they were all complete. Figure 5.5 represents the incremental delivery.

Figure 5.5: Incremental Delivery

Task In a group of four explain the incremental delivery in your words.

Self Assessment

Fill in the blanks:

13. The radial dimension represents the cumulative ………………… and each path around the
spiral indicates the incremented cost.
14. The development of prototype is an additional cost overhead but still the total cost is
lower than that of the software developed using a …………………. model.
15. Incremental delivery is a chief component of most software projects today – it permits us
to deliver the most valuable elements of a …………………….

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