The 

classical waterfall model is hard to use. So, Iterative

waterfall model can be thought of as incorporating the
necessary changes to the classical waterfall model to make
it usable in practical software development projects. It is
almost same as the classical waterfall model except some
changes are made to increase the efficiency of the software
development.

The iterative waterfall model provides feedback paths

from every phase to its preceding phases, which is the
main difference from the classical waterfall model.

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The iterative waterfall model provides feedback
paths from every phase to its preceding phases,
which is the main difference from the classical
waterfall model.

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The main focus of this phase is to determine whether it
would be financially and technically feasible to develop
the software.

The feasibility study involves carrying out several

activities such as collection of basic information relating to
the software such as

the different data items that would be input to the system,

the processing required to be carried out on these data,
the output data required to be produced by the system,
Various constraints on the development

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The feedback paths allow the phase to be reworked
in which errors are committed and these changes
are reflected in the later phases. But, there is no
feedback path to the stage – feasibility study,
because once a project has been taken, does not
give up the project easily.

It is good to detect errors in the same phase in

which they are committed. It reduces the effort and
time required to correct the errors.

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 Feedback Path: In the classical waterfall model, there are
no feedback paths, so there is no mechanism for error
correction. But in iterative waterfall model feedback path
from one phase to its preceding phase allows correcting
the errors that are committed and these changes are
reflected in the later phases.

 Simple: Iterative waterfall model is very simple to

understand and use. That’s why it is one of the most
widely used software development models.

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 Difficult to incorporate change requests: The major drawback
of the iterative waterfall model is that all the requirements must
be clearly stated before starting of the development phase.
Customer may change requirements after some time but the
iterative waterfall model does not leave any scope to incorporate
change requests that are made after development phase starts.

 Incremental delivery not supported: In the iterative waterfall

model, the full software is completely developed and tested before
delivery to the customer. There is no scope for any intermediate
delivery. So, customers have to wait long for getting the software.

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 Overlapping of phases not supported: Iterative waterfall
model assumes that one phase can start after completion of
the previous phase, But in real projects, phases may
overlap to reduce the effort and time needed to complete
the project.

 Risk handling not supported: Projects may suffer from

various types of risks. But, Iterative waterfall model has
no mechanism for risk handling.

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 Limited customer interactions: Customer interaction
occurs at the start of the project at the time of
requirement gathering and at project completion at the
time of software delivery. These fewer interactions with
the customers may lead to many problems as the finally
developed software may differ from the customers’
actual requirements.

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 Incremental process model is also known as
Successive version model.

 First,a simple working system implementing

only a few basic features is built and then that is
delivered to the customer. Then thereafter many
successive iterations/ versions are implemented
and delivered to the customer until the desired
system is released.
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A, B, C are modules of Software Product that
are incrementally developed and delivered.

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Life cycle activities –
Requirements of Software are first broken down into several modules that can be
incrementally constructed and delivered. At any time, the plan is made just for the
next increment and not for any kind of long term plans. Therefore, it is easier to
modify the version as per the need of the customer. Development Team first
undertakes to develop core features (these do not need services from other
features) of the system.

Once the core features are fully developed, then these are refined to increase levels
of capabilities by adding new functions in Successive versions. Each incremental
version is usually developed using an iterative waterfall model of development.
As each successive version of the software is constructed and delivered, now the
feedback of the Customer is to be taken and these were then incorporated in the
next version. Each version of the software have more additional features over the
previous ones.

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 Error Reduction: The core modules are used by the
customer from the beginning and therefore these get tested
thoroughly. This reduces chances of errors in the core
modules of the final product, leading to greater reliability
of the software.

 Incremental Resource Deployment: This model obviates

the need for the customer to commit large resources at one
go for development of the system. It also saves the
developing organisation from deploying large resources
and manpower for a project in one go.
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 Requires good planning and design.
 Total cost is not lower.
 Well defined module interfaces are

required.

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