Evolutionary design,continuous design,evolutive design,incremental design orevolutionary architecture is directly related to any modular design application, in which components can be freely substituted to improve the design, modify performance, or change another feature at a later time.
Software architects andsoftware developers should use "fitness functions" to continuously keep the software system in check.[1] According to Neal Ford, evolutionary architecture delays decisions until the "last responsible moment." That moment can be identified with fast feedback loops and guiding fitness functions.[2]
According to Neal Ford, evolutionary architecture adopts "Bring the pain forward," tackling tough tasks early, fostering automation and swift issue detection.[2]
In particular, it applies (with the name continuous design) tosoftware development. In this field it is a practice of creating and modifying the design of a system as it is developed, rather than purporting to specify the system completely before development starts (as in thewaterfall model). Continuous design was popularized byextreme programming. Continuous design also usestest driven development andrefactoring.Martin Fowler wrote a popular book calledRefactoring, as well as a popular article entitled "Is Design Dead?", that talked about continuous/evolutionary design.James Shore wrote an article in IEEE titled "Continuous Design".
Modular design states that a product is made of subsystems that are joined together to create a full product.[3] The above design model defined in electronics and evolved in industrial design into well consolidated industrial standards related to platform concept and its evolution.[4]
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