The Rational Unified Process: An Introduction (Object Technology Series)

Kruchten, Philippe

ISBN 10: 0201604590 ISBN 13: 9780201604597

Publisher: Addison Wesley, 1999

Synopsis

This is a quick start guide to he Rational Unified Process. The Unified Process is derived from the three market leading object-oriented analysis and design methods: Booch, OMT and OOSE.

About this title

Review

You will eventually have to deal with The Rational Unified Process (RUP) if you work on large software projects. In practice, RUP is a Web-based project management tool with a built in e-coach (a sophisticated help system) and much previous art. It emphasises obvious project management practices such as defining user needs, interactive development and testing, reusing working code components, inter-developer communications, change control, risk management and so on. Rational claim to add value by charging for it, couching it in arcane management speak and invoking UML. The tools it provides make it easier to implement good practice, but RUP is far from being a panacea and, to some developers, this introduction will seem patronising.

Managing large software projects, unlike civil engineering, remains more art than craft. Customers don't know what they want until they see what they've got. The structure often remains secret from the paying customer, the finished product always comes with faults, accurate costing is impossible and large software projects frequently fail more often than civil engineering projects. It's not surprising, then, that much of The Rational Unified Process: An Introduction is made up of somewhat uninformative statements, like "Workers have activities which define the work they perform", or "A metric is a measurable attribute of an entity". RUP is gaining mind share as a useful tool--and this is a low cost introduction--but don't expect it to turn software development into engineering. --Steve Patient

From the Author

A roadmap to the Rational Unified Process
This book is not the "Silver Bullet". This book is not an end, the ultimate answer. It is only a start, the tip of an iceberg, a beach-head for your discovery of the Rational Unified Process. This software development process is quite comprehensive, covering many different disciplines and can be overwhelming at first, a maze sometimes, and I wrote this book to be your travel guide when researching it. I have tried to present in simple terms the key principles and the underlying concepts, to introduce the jargon and to provide roadmaps for your personal exploration of the Rational Unified Process. Although only my name shows up on the cover, this book is the result of the collective effort of many people; first my team, the Rational Process Development Group, which spreads from Vancouver to Stockholm, and scores of other "rationalites." In this development process, we have tried to capture, synthesize and present the best software development practices we could identify, based on our own experience, and that of our partners and customers. This book is not new (nor for that respect is the Rational Unified Process): it was part of our version 4.x in 1996, but was only available through Rational Software, so I am delighted that with very short turn-around time Addison Wesley Longman accepted to publish it to make it more widely available.
Philippe Kruchten, Rational Software, Vancouver BC, Canada

Edition details

• Publisher: Addison Wesley
• Publication date: 1999
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0201604590
• ISBN 13: 9780201604597
• Binding: Textbook Binding
• Number of pages: 272