Rational Unified Process (RUP)

The Rational Unified Process (RUP) is a software development methodology created by Rational Software.

Principles

The principles of RUP are as follows:

• Early identification and continuous (until the end of the project) elimination of the main risks.
• Concentration on meeting customer requirements for an executable program (analyzing and building a model of use cases (use cases)).
• Waiting for changes in requirements, design decisions and implementation in the development process.
• Component architecture, implemented and tested in the early stages of the project.
• Continuous quality assurance at all stages of project development (product).
• Work on the project in a cohesive team, the key role in which belongs to the architects.

RUP Processes and Stages

RUP uses an iterative development model. At the end of each iteration (ideally continuing from 2 to 6 weeks), the project team should achieve the objectives planned for this iteration, create or modify project artifacts and obtain an intermediate but functional version of the final product. Iterative development allows you to quickly respond to changing requirements, identify and eliminate risks in the early stages of a project, and effectively control the quality of the product being created. The first ideas of the iterative development model were laid in the "spiral model" ^{[1] [2]} .

The full product development life cycle consists of four phases, each of which includes one or more iterations:

Graphic representation of the development process by RUP

1. Initial Stage (Inception)

In the initial phase:

• Formed vision and boundaries of the project.
• A business case is created.
• Defines the basic requirements, limitations and key functionality of the product.
• A basic version of the use case model is created.
• Risks are evaluated.

At the end of the initial phase, the achievement of the life cycle stage of the goal (eng. Lifecycle Objective Milestone ) is estimated, which implies agreement among the stakeholders on the continuation of the project.

2. Refinement (Elaboration)

In the “Refinement” phase, the analysis of the subject area and the construction of the executable architecture are performed. It includes:

• Documenting requirements (including a detailed description for most of the use cases).
• Designed, implemented and tested executable architecture.
• Updated business case and more accurate timing and cost estimates.
• Reduced major risks.

Successful implementation of the refinement phase means achieving the lifecycle architecture milestone stage .

3. Construction (Construction)

In the “Build” phase, most of the product functionality is implemented. Phase Construction is completed with the first external release of the system and a milestone of initial functional readiness (Initial Operational Capability).

4. Implementation (Transition)

In the implementation phase, the final product version is created and transferred from the developer to the customer. This includes a beta program, user training, and product quality determination. If the quality does not meet user expectations or criteria set in the Beginning phase, the implementation phase is repeated again. Accomplishing all goals means achieving the milestone of the finished product (Product Release) and completing the full development cycle.

see also

• Business modeling
• Openup
• Spiral model