RUP Methodology

RUP (Rational unified process) methodology is an iterative and adaptive software development framework which is promoted by the Rational Software Company which is now owned by IBM. The RUP methodology is based around a specific team skillset, timescales and some key document models. Software organizations will customize this framework as per their needs to produce high quality software to meet the stipulated project budget and project plan. RUP methodology unifies the team which will include members from the six disciplines of software engineering.

The 6 Disciplines of RUP Methodology

These are:

• Business Modeling
• Requirements Gathering
• Analysis and Design
• Process of Software Development and Implementation,
• Software Application Testing
• Deployment

There are three other disciplines which will play a supportive role. These are:

• Environment Setup and Management,
• Configuration and change Management
• Project Management

RUP methodology follows an iterative approach which is used in organizing the work through a number of phases. The various phases involved in developing a software within this framework are:

The 4 Phases of RUP

1.0 Inception

In this phase, the business case is prepared and discussed. This includes business success factors (i.e. revenue and market recognition), assessment of risk, creating a project plan and use case model. The project manager will also write a project initiation document or project charter during this phase.

2.0 Elaboration

This phase is marked by mitigation of risk through proper analysis. It includes development of the basic form of project architecture and use case descriptions. The Business case is revisited to revise the project risks log and ensure that managing project risk is possible. Then the development plan of the overall project is chalked out. Finally prototypes are developed to demonstrate that each of the technical risks have been taken care of. If not, the project may be cancelled.

3.0 Construction

This phase focuses on the development part of the can software development life cycle. The code is written for the various components and other features of the software. As you can imagine, depending on the size of the project, the number of iterations will increase.

4.0 Transition

The product moves from development to production in this phase of RUP methodology. The user gets a first look at the software and is trained up on it. The software goes through beta testing and is assessed against the project quality plan detailed during the inception phase.

RUP Methodology - Tip

The project needs to be in the hands of real expert or else it may lead to an undisciplined form of development.Hence you need someone who is not only good at managing project teams but also who is technical enough to really drive a development such as this forward to a successful conclusion.