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What is the iterative process? The iterative process is the practice of building, refining, and improving a project, product, or initiative. Teams that use the iterative development process create, test, and revise until they’re satisfied with the end result. You can think of an iterative process as a trial-and-error methodology that brings your project closer to its end goal. Iterative processes are a fundamental part of lean methodologies and Agile project management—but these processes can be implemented by any team, not just Agile ones. During the iterative process, you will continually improve your design, product, or project until you and your team are satisfied with the final project deliverable. So what is a non-iterative process? In a non-iterative process, you and your team would work together to come up with a final product without necessarily trying new ideas along the way. Typically, non-iterative processes require more time during the conceptualization and creation phase, so that everything works as intended during the testing phase. Waterfall is the most common non-iterative process. In the waterfall model, you and your team will define project phases before the project starts. Each phase begins once a previous phase is completed in its entirety. Requirements and resources will typically be locked before a project begins, and the team avoids changing the project plan as much as possible. For example, imagine you’re working with a design agency to create an ebook. You first need to provide all of the copy for the ebook. Then, the design agency will take that copy and create designs. Finally, your internal team will copyedit the designed ebook to make sure everything looks ok. This is an example of the waterfall model because each phase relies on the previous step (i.e. you can’t copyedit the designed ebook until it’s been designed).