Talk:Incrementalism

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ekh 02:53, 20 April 2015 (UTC)

I first came across this term from a lecturer at Strathclyde University c1990 (I forget the name). At the time it seemed a curiosity rather than useful, but 15 years later I was asked to look at the software development process in a company. In order to describe this process in the report where I concluded that it was preferred to more formal planning I use the term "rapid incremental development" using the term I had learnt at University.

Later I came across the term when researching the Danish Wind Industry.

Open Paragraph

I noticed an edit on the first paragraph.

Incrementalism is a method of working using a gradual incremental approach such as adding to a project over time. <became> Incrementalism is a process of adding to a gradually to a project by series of small steps.

I may be wrong, but I think incrementalism is a methodology of work i.e. a philosophy. A process is a means of doing work. I've reverted back to "a method of working", because I think this is the simplest way to say "working methodology". However I preferred the "adding to a project" by small steps (although the idea of a project may be redundant because there is no need to plan and therefore no need to define a scope for the work beyond the immediately focus of improvement).

--Mike 23:45, 29 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Continuous improvement

"The antithesis of incrementalism is that work must be accomplished in one single push rather than a process of continuous improvement." CI generally refers to a specific method in quality management. Although it is "incremental" it is hardly a good example of "incrementalism" in the context of planning. Quality management requires business planning. This should be clear from a cursory reading of Shewhart, Deming, Juran, and Crosby. --Suidafrikaan (talk) 17:13, 19 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

The Incrementalism Wikipedia page begins with a definition of incrementalism stating that incrementalism is a method of working by adding to a project using small incremental changes instead of a few large jumps. The page later is broken down into nine categories entitled Origin, Contrasts to other planning methodologies, related concepts, pros and cons, usage, examples, references, external links and a category entitled see also. The article is easy to understand but the structure is bare and lacking details in many areas. The introduction does a good job of showing the readers different approaches to thinking about incrementalism but does not explore them in detail in their own sections. The “origin” category attempts to explain how incrementalism was established by simply stating that it is “the natural and intuitive way to tackle everyday problems” but lacks historical origins and ideas of incrementalism. This section could benefit if Lindblom’s concepts of incrementalism were included.

The article then goes on to the “contrasts to other planning methodologies” category to explain the outlook on incrementalism when it comes to different projects.  This sections needs to cover the methodologies mentioned in the intro including the “Muddling through”,”Logical incrementalism”, “rational actor model”, and “bounded rationality”.

The Pros and Cons section briefly discusses the effects on formal systems and rationality. Public policy has plenty of both and supports the lack of strategic planning that can be added to this section and references of these. The small page touches on the related concepts the usage of incrementalism and is later followed by an example.The Usage section and the Example section can be combined to create a well rounded description of how incrementalism is used and show direct examples of the process. The examples should support the claims the Usage section makes.It is concluded with references and external links that will allow the reader to gain further knowledge. Although the small page does not contain much information it does a successful job at introducing the concept of incrementalism with a small number of sources and will need a lot of work to be an illuminating article