Salami Publication

This can be a salami slicing strategy, if the authors deliberately split their results into two papers, where the second one has only a slight incremental value.

However, it also might be that "some new steps" they added significantly improve the algorithm so it becomes faster / more accurate / more reliable. It might also be that the improvement has not been known when the first paper was submitted. In this case this is not a salami publishing, but a normal development of their method.

Many journals will include a 'first submitted' date. Compare those dates, if it interests to you. Its possible the first paper was submitted in the distant past, additional work was performed and subsequently submitted to a separate journal (separate for any variety of reasons) and the two publications just happened to have similar publish dates.

Not everything in life is Machiavellian maneuvering. But yes, of course it is good strategy to have as many publications as possible, for both selfish and practical reasons. Selfish in that publications are the currency of academia. Practical in that it reaches a larger audience and likely provides easier reading.