Moving from Waterfall to Iterative Development: An Empirical Evaluation of Advantages, Disadvantages and Risks of RUP

This paper describes an exploratory case study of the benefits of using an iterative development process versus a waterfall process. The study was performed in a division of an IT department of a large multinational company. A set of people in different roles in this organization were interviewed. We triangulated the results with the opinion of experts from other companies and existing literature. The research finds several categories of factors for which the use of iterative development is preferable over waterfall development in terms of business value, however there are also some clear costs and limitations that should be explicitly considered by any company planning on introducing an iterative development process.