Project and Development Life Cycles

Product Life Cycle

The series of phases that represent the evolution of a product, from concept through delivery, growth, maturity, and to retirement.

Adaptive Life Cycle

These life cycles are agile, iterative, or incremental. The detailed scope is defined and approved before the start of an iteration. This life cycle can also be referred to as agile or change-driven life cycles.

Hybrid Life Cycle

This life cycle is a combination of a predictive and an adaptive life cycle. Those elements of the project that are well known or have fixed requirements follow a predictive development life cycle, and those elements that are still evolving follow an adaptive development life cycle.

Incremental Life Cycle

In this life cycle, the deliverable is produced through a series of iterations that successively add functionality with a predetermined time frame. The deliverable contains the necessary and sufficient capability to be considered complete only after the final iteration.

Iterative Life Cycle

The project scope is generally determined early in the project life cycle, but time and cost estimates are routinely modified as the project team's understanding of the product increases. These life cycles develop the product through a series of repeated cycles, while increments successively add to the functionality of the product.

Predictive Life Cycle

The project scope, time, and cost are determined in the early phases of this life cycle. Any changes to the scope are carefully managed. This may also be referred to as waterfall life cycles.