The life cycle of a particular project is composed of different phases, around which the project management scheme is organized. There are different types of project life cycle depending on the organization involved as well as the phases. One of the project life cycles important in project management is the adaptive life cycle.
The adaptive life cycle is also called a flexible or change-focused method (or agile or change-driven methods) and it responds to immensely high levels of change as well as the ongoing participation of different parties involves. In the adaptive life cycle, the overall scope of a project is broken down into different sets of requirements or sub-projects that will be undertaken individually. During the iteration, the functionalities of the cycle will be discussed, implemented and, finally, reviewed by the client.
The advantage of the adaptive life cycle is that it is appropriate for projects that involve higher levels of complexity and uncertainties such that each iteration of this particular project life cycle should address issues for every task and each task should be completed before another task is undertaken. The risk is minimized for this particular project life cycle.
This term is defined in the 5th edition of the PMBOK.