Adaptive Life Cycle
An adaptive life cycle is a change-driven approach that is both iterative and incremental, where the detailed scope is defined and approved before the start of each iteration.
Explanation
Adaptive life cycles — often called agile — are designed for environments with high levels of change and uncertainty. Rather than attempting to define the full scope upfront, the team works in short iterations (typically one to four weeks), with the scope for each iteration determined just before it begins. This allows the project to respond to changing requirements, stakeholder feedback, and emerging information.
Agile methods such as Scrum, Kanban, and Extreme Programming (XP) are implementations of the adaptive life cycle. They emphasize customer collaboration, working software (or deliverables) over comprehensive documentation, responding to change over following a plan, and individuals and interactions over processes and tools — the four values of the Agile Manifesto.
Adaptive life cycles work best when requirements are uncertain or rapidly evolving, when the customer wants frequent delivery of value, and when the team can work in close collaboration with stakeholders. They require a high degree of stakeholder involvement, empowered teams, and organizational support for iterative decision-making.
Key Points
- •Change-driven, combining iterative and incremental approaches
- •Detailed scope is defined at the start of each iteration, not upfront
- •Emphasizes customer collaboration and rapid feedback loops
- •Requires empowered teams and active stakeholder engagement
Exam Tip
PMI views agile as one end of a spectrum, not a separate discipline. If a scenario describes evolving requirements, short iterations, and close customer collaboration, it points to an adaptive life cycle.
Frequently Asked Questions
Related Topics
Iterative Life Cycle
An iterative life cycle is an approach where the project scope is generally determined early, but time and cost estimates are routinely modified as understanding increases through repeated cycles of work.
Incremental Life Cycle
An incremental life cycle is an approach where the deliverable is produced through a series of iterations that successively add functionality within a predetermined time frame.
Hybrid Life Cycle
A hybrid life cycle is a combination of predictive and adaptive approaches, using elements of both based on the nature of the work.
Project Life Cycle
The project life cycle is the series of phases that a project passes through from its start to its completion.
Product Backlog
The Product Backlog is an emergent, ordered list of everything that might be needed in the product, serving as the single source of requirements for any changes to be made.
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