Chapter 17. Start your engines: iteration 0
At this point, the Acme team has performed feasibility and planning work for the pilot project. Many people in the agile community label this pre-development work iteration 0. Iteration 0 work is foundational work that is performed prior to development starting.
For our purposes, iteration 0 is the foundational work performed after initial planning but before development begins. Iteration 0 work usually runs for about a week, but it can take less or more time depending on project complexity. Let’s look at some of the typical tasks performed during this timeframe.
The Acme Media team performed a high-level analysis of the architectural needs for the Auctionator when they performed their feasibility work. They will take one more look at the architectural needs before they begin development. This makes sense, because they just came through the feature-card exercise. They have more information about each feature, and they can use that knowledge to outline an initial architectural model.
Assessing and modeling your architectural needs offers numerous benefits. Here are a few: