“Iteration” is a general term for a fixed length of time during which a software or other team works together to advance the team’s or company’s goals. It comes from the iterative software development method, which came about in the late seventies.
It is a term commonly used in the Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) and other software development methodologies and is often used synonymously with “sprint”. In software development, an iteration is a shorter time period within a larger development project, during which a specific set of tasks is committed to and, ideally, delivered.
Iterations are used in Agile development methodologies, where the project is divided into smaller chunks and worked on in a series of iterations, with each iteration typically building upon the previous one. This allows for more flexibility and faster delivery, as the team can make adjustments and changes based on feedback and insights from previous iterations.
Each iteration should have a specific set of goals and deliverables. At the end of the iteration, the team will review the work that has been completed (typically during the sprint demo) and make any necessary adjustments. This process is then repeated until the project/epic/feature is completed.