In Incremental Development, what happens to the cost of accommodating changing customer requirements?

In Incremental Development, the approach emphasizes building a system in small, manageable segments or increments, allowing feedback and adjustments with each completed segment. As a result, this method inherently accommodates changing customer requirements more effectively than traditional methods.

When changes occur, they can be integrated into the next increment rather than requiring a complete overhaul of the project or entire system. Because this iterative process allows for validations and refinements after each increment, the cost of accommodating changes tends to decrease as adjustments can often be made more easily and with less disruption compared to a linear development approach.

The flexibility built into Incremental Development encourages ongoing customer collaboration, making it cheaper and easier to implement changes based on user feedback, rather than facing higher costs associated with reworking large parts of a project later in the development cycle. This adaptability is a key strength of the Incremental Development model, as it supports a continuous alignment with customer needs and expectations.