Cycoda: RUP

The Rational Unified Process (RUP)

The Rational Unified Process is a software engineering process and a product. It provides a disciplined approach to assigning tasks and responsibilities within a development organisation. Its goal is to ensure the production of high-quality software that meets the needs of its end users within a predictable schedule and budget.

The diagram shows the overall architecture of the RUP, which has two dimensions:

the horizontal axis represents time and shows the lifecycle aspects of the process as it unfolds
the vertical axis represents disciplines, which group activities logically by nature.

The first dimension represents the dynamic aspect of the process as it is enacted, and it is expressed in terms of phases, iterations, and milestones.

The second dimension represents the static aspect of the process: how it is described in terms of process components, disciplines, activities, workflows, artefacts, and roles (see Key Concepts).

The diagram shows how the emphasis varies over time. For example, in early iterations, we spend more time on requirements, and in later iterations we spend more time on implementation.

Each discipline is defined by a set of activities ordered into workflows, resulting in a number of models ie views of the system under development. These models are mainly comprised of diagrams (using UML) and documents.