Introduction
Rational unified process (RUP) is an agile software development approach which is adapted to develop software.
What is Rational Unified Process (RUP) ?
A software development process from rational is called "RUP". It divides the development process into four levels that each include business modeling, analysis and design, implementation, testing and deployment.
The Rational Unified Process (RUP) is iterative, because all of the basic activities or you can say Processes repeat during the project.
The Rational Unified Process (RUP) is agile because multiple components can be able to adjust , and phases of the development cycle could be repeated as far as the software matches the requirements and objectives.
The structure of the Rational Unified Process (RUP)
This structure or approach explains which person is going to do what, when and most importantly how.
Who (means the team members or workers)
This explains the role of team members in the project. Which member is going to perform a certain task of the project means how individuals carry out their work and so on. The main task or goal of every team member is to produce artifacts (a model, a class) .
How (means the activities of the project)
We know that every individual has a clear purpose and is appointed to specific work. Generally activities involve creating or updating some artifacts.
What (means the artifacts)
Artifacts means some sort of things like a plan or a model and their information. Artifacts are input signals that are used by team members to perform an Activity.
When(means the workflows)
Workflows means sequence of the work like which activity is done at which time.
The four phase of Rational Unified Process (RUP) or life cycle of RUP are as follows
- Inception - At the beginning of the initial phase, the fundamental idea and design of the project are decided by the team mates and manager. For example, what would be the basic structure of the project and how to design all that. During this phase the team mates also decide the viability (practicality) and correctness. And also the expected cost of the project is decided at this phase.
- Elaboration - In the elaboration phase it deals with system requirements and its required architecture are examined and considered. The project started taking shape during this phase. The main goal of the elaboration phase is to examine products and set the stage for future architecture. During this phase the user manual also Discussed with the team mates.
- Construction - During the construction phase , the software system is framed or constructed completely you can say. In the construction phase of the rational unified process (RUP) , the focus is on the development of components and other Features of the system. The bulk of coding is also a part of this phase. This phase is completely dedicated to managing costs and means , along with ensuring quality.
- Transition - The goal of the transition phase is to deliver or transfer the software product to its new user or you say client. Once the user or client starts using the system, bugs approximately emerge that need changes to be made to the system. The main objective is to ensure an easy and smooth passing or transition to the user or client. During the transition phase beta testing also happens.
The various stages previously demonstrate the various activities included in the development of a system . Now here is a more detailed description of the core activities.
- Corporate Modeling - corporate modeling or you can simply say that business modeling is one of the problems in the use of technical systems where users are not able to communicate properly or users are not able to tell the exact bug or issue in the system. For this reason RUP (Rational Unified Process) created a universal language and offering process.
- Requirements - The main objective of the requirements is to explain what the system should do and how it functions. The developer and user or client interact with each other and agree on the requirements as explained in the first stage. Then a vision document is created and a use case is developed.
- Analysis and design - this phase must meet the expectations of the user or client, whatever the requirements of the user and the requirements Described in the use case. The system must be robust and execute all the tasks described in the use case .
- Implementation - In the implementation phase the system is fully constructed and components of the system are being tasted and released .
- Testing - In this phase all the components of the system and their integration with each other is checked and the software of the system also checked. In testing integration means all the components which are used in the system are working properly or not and components give response to the specific tasks related to the component work or not. Simply we can say that during the testing phase reliability and functionality of the system is tested. Application management and system performance is also tested during this phase.
- Application - After the rigorous testing of the system now its turn of releasing a software system to the respected user or client. During this phase ensuring the system performance and also ensuring the user is happy with the system performance or not. Application phase contains packaging of the system and transferring it to the respected user and installing the system for the user and also providing help and assistance to the user for using the system.
Benefits of using Rational Unified Process (RUP)
- This makes it possible to modify the requirements despite whether they are proceeding from the customer or from the project itself.
- This makes it necessary for integration to emerge during the whole process of software development's construction phase more specifically.
Disadvantages of Rational Unified Process (RUP)
- This process needs the expert professionals to allot the activities (work) to those individuals who are brilliant at their work (specific work ) further providing predetermined results in the form of artifacts.
- RUP is a Complex method, it's implementation is difficult .
- RUP is perfect for smaller businesses and for small projects and teams.
Conclusion
It's especially helpful or beneficial to know and identify the defects of the project at the initial phases or stages.