On any project, you should do at least these three activities during Elaboration:

• Define, validate, and baseline the architecture

• Refine the Vision.

• Create and baseline iteration plans for the Construction phase.

Construction

The goal of Construction is to complete the development of the system. The Construction phase is, in some sense, a manufacturing process, where you emphasize managing resources and controlling operations to optimize costs, schedules, and quality. In this sense, the management mindset undergoes a transition from the development of intellectual property during Inception and Elaboration, to the development of deployable products during Construction and Transition.

Each Construction iteration has three essential activities:

• Manage resources and control process.

• Develop and test components.

• Assess the iteration.

Transition

The focus of Transition is to ensure that software is available for its end users. The Transition phase includes testing the product in preparation for release and making minor adjustments based on user feedback. At this point in the lifecycle, user feedback needs to focus mainly on fine-tuning the product, configuring, installing, and usability issues.

The essential Transition activities are the following:

• Finalize end-user support material.

• Test the product deliverable in a customer environment.

• Fine tune the product based upon customer feedback.

• Deliver the final product to the end user.

You can produce several artifacts during the Transition phase. If your product is one that will have future releases (and how many do not?), you will have begun identifying features and defect fixes for the next release.

The essential artifacts for any project are:

• Deployment Plan

• Release Notes

• Training Materials and Documentation.

Digest

Building software is more than writing code. A software development process must focus on all activities necessary to deliver quality to your customers. A complete process does not have to be heavy. We have shown how you can have a small, yet complete, process by focusing on the essential activities and artifacts for your project. Perform an activity or produce an artifact if it helps mitigate risk on your project. Use as much, or as little, process and formality as you need for your project team and your organization. RUP and XP are not necessarily exclusive. By incorporating techniques from both methods, you can arrive at a process that helps you deliver better quality software quicker than you do today. Robert Martin describes a process called the dX process, which he claims to be RUP compliant.8 It is an instance of a process built from the RUP framework.

Page 2 of 2 :: First | Last :: Prev | 1 2 | Next