OPL Iterative Refinement

I don't believe that I have ever used this pattern before.  This is probably due to my professional experience being mainly confined to data management type applications, but perhaps because of this I'm an ideal candidate to critique the understandability of this pattern.
I understand what this pattern proposes, but what I am less clear on is when I would use it.  The pattern talks in abstract terms about the applicability, but this is perhaps a pattern that would benefit from a more concrete example.  Certainly, if I understood my problem domain to look like one of the examples, it would be obvious that this pattern could apply, but my concern is that in applicable cases that are described in terms different than those of the pattern, it might not be obvious that this pattern could be of use.