In the software development realm, Rational Software Inc. sits near the center. As the developer of the industry-standard UML (Unified Modeling Language) notation and the purveyor of a leading suite of software development tools, Rational clearly holds a prominent position in the industry.

For this reason, the Rational Unified Process (RUP) merits close examination, especially for software development organizations planning to implement a formal software process. RUP, a well-designed, mature software development process, is highly customizable.

What is RUP? At its heart, RUP seeks to bridge two very different concepts: methodology and software. A traditional methodology is brainware that you learn and apply, whereas software is something that you install and use. As a formal software development process, RUP is first and foremost brainware, but being a Rational product, it is software as well.

On the process front, RUP is based on a set of best practices now considered conventional wisdom by methodology practitioners. RUP's ancestors actually influenced other methodologies to the point where it is almost impossible to find a popular formal methodology that doesn't include aspects you also find in RUP.

The RUP software development process is delivered via a Web-based application. Part of an easily navigable knowledge base, the Web application contains process documentation, examples, guidelines, and best practices. The Web application also provides team members with templates and tool instruction, as well as process-oriented products.

Team members use the Web application to learn about the software development process, access the templates used to create process artifacts, and browse existing process artifacts. A navigation bar embedded in the browser window provides quick access to most of the facets of the process.

By delivering the process as a Web application, RUP seeks to remove one of the biggest obstacles to proper process implementation, the learning curve associated with the process, its activities, and the generation of artifacts. The challenge comes in the implementation of these best practices. This is where the product side of RUP comes in.

On the product side, RUP consists of extensive guidelines for team members on all aspects of the RUP software development life cycle. Guidelines include tool mentors, which provide guidance on using tools to assist with the process; templates for Rational Rose, Rational SoDA, Microsoft Corp. Word, and Microsoft Project; and a development kit that describes how to customize and extend RUP to meet the needs of your organization. All of this information is managed by way of the Web application.

RUP also contains a development kit and provides guidelines on how to customize both the process and the components of the Web application to meet the needs of an organization. Adopters can also use Rational Process Workbench, a separate software product, to implement larger-scale changes such as incorporating company-specific best practices. The goal of customizing is to find the point where the delivery of quality software and the delivery of software intersect.

Rational has clearly distilled quite a bit of information into the product part of RUP. This is clearly valuable because one of the persistent challenges of using or implementing a new process is getting team members up to speed. But you may still need to invest in some training for your staff.

At a time when many people think of XP (Extreme Programming) as a comprehensive software development process, RUP harkens back to a day when a software process had a lot more substance. Some may find the formality too stifling, but many applications clearly demand the rigor RUP provides.

» posted by abennett

InfoWorld

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