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Problem: structural degradation

publish date: 2026/05/29 08:22:40.238284 UTC

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Another issue with incremental development is the risk of structural degradation.

What causes this degradation?

Strictly enforcing architectural constraints at every step.

Rewriting the system from scratch for each increment.

Using too much documentation in each increment.

Frequent changes and additions without refactoring can corrupt the system structure.

Frequent changes and additions without refactoring can corrupt the system structure.

Without regular refactoring, incremental changes can lead to a tangled architecture that is harder and more expensive to modify.

Software Engineering, Ian Sommerville, 9th edition