The software problem comes down to the difficulty developers face in coordinating the multiple work streams of a large software project.
The Unified Development Process (RUP) is a solution to this problem because:
- Provides a guide to organize the activities of a team. Directs the tasks of each developer separately and those of the team as a whole. Specifies the artifacts to be developed. Offers criteria for the control, measurement of products and project activities.
RUP uses the UML to prepare the software schemas and is based on software components interconnected with each other through well defined interfaces. Its main features are that it is directed by use cases, focused on architecture and is iterative and incremental. It is practical to subdivide the work into smaller parts or mini-projects where each one results in an increase or version of the product.
The life cycle of a project consists of four phases: conception, elaboration, construction and transition. Each phase ends with a milestone where there is a set of artifacts (documents, models, executable code, etc.), its most important objective is that project managers can make decisions to continue to the next phase. At the end of the life cycle phases, a product version is finished.
In the design phase, a description of the final product is developed based on a good idea and the business analysis for the product is presented.
During the development phase, most product use cases are specified in detail and the system architecture is designed. At the end of this phase the director is ready to plan the activities and estimate the resources necessary to complete the project.
In the construction phase the product is created, the architecture grows to become a complete system and already contains all the agreed use cases.
In the transition phase, system tests are carried out with a small number of users to detect defects and deficiencies. Developers fix bugs and introduce suggested improvements.
Each phase can have multiple iterations, and each iteration can encompass multiple workflow processes.
Software development groups working in an iterative way have some members who go over planning and achieve a set of goals made for later iterations. The overlapping iteration technique can be beneficial if it is understood and manipulated correctly.
Standard iterations l1, l2, and l3 occur sequentially from left to right, sequentially occurring downward with each iteration (Requirements, Design, Code and Test).
These iterations can overlap as the following graph shows:
The following below shows the overlapping iterations controlled by the time-box technique:
This overlapping iteration technique has the following risks:
- Increases work Increases the cost of canceling a project Decreased morale Impact on the improvement process Discipline mentality Danger of the waterfall
To avoid overlapping iterations in the project, staff can be used at:
- Two projects.Multiple roles.Accept the time wasting situation.Reduce the size of the group.
Overlapping iterations can be of great help, but you must have a rigorous control so that they do not become a double-edged sword, for this you must follow these two important rules:
- Do not allow overlapping iterations during construction, if in construction. During construction do not allow going beyond an iteration.
Bibliographic references:
Philippe Kruchten. "The Rational Unified Process: An introduction". Addison - Wesley. 2000.
Barry Boehm. "Get ready for Agile Methods, with care". Computer, pp. 64-69, 2002.
