Artifact: Iteration Assessment

Iteration Assessment	The Iteration Assessment captures the result of an iteration, the degree to which the evaluation criteria were met, lessons learned, and changes to be done.
Role:	Project Manager
Templates:	HTML Others
Examples:	Iteration Assessment, from the Course Registration System Iteration Assessment, from the Collegiate Sports Paging System (e-business)
Purpose Timing Responsibility Tailoring Additional Information

Input to Activities:

Prepare for Project Close-Out

Iteration Acceptance Review

Lifecycle Milestone Review

Project Acceptance Review

Assess and Improve Test Effort

Prepare for Phase Close-Out

Output from Activities:

Assess Iteration

Prepare for Phase Close-Out

Purpose

Each iteration is concluded by an Iteration Assessment, where the development organization pauses to reflect on what has happened, what was achieved or not and why, and the lessons learned.

Timing

Iteration Assessments are created at the end of each iteration. They are not updated.

Responsibility

Tailoring

The Iteration Assessment is an essential artifact of the iterative approach. Depending on the scope and risk of the project, and the nature of the iteration, it may range from being a simple record of demonstration and outcomes to a complete and formal test record.

Additional Information

This assessment is a critical step in an iteration and should not be skipped. If an Iteration Assessment is not done properly, many of the benefits of an iterative approach will be lost.

Note that sometimes the right thing to do in this step is to revise the evaluation criteria, rather than reworking the system. Sometimes the benefit of the Iteration Assessment is in revealing that a particular requirement is not important, or is too expensive to implement, or creates an architecture that cannot be maintained. In these cases, a cost and benefit analysis must be done, and a business decision must be made.