Rational unified process model
THE MANTRA for any business is `delivering quality product and/or service'. This is more true of IT organisations, where change is a constant factor and meeting this goal is highly challenging. The saying `watch the quality and the profits will take care of themselves' is apt here.
But how is this goal achieved? One of the major contributing factors for the same, is the establishment of a firm process which defines What to do, When and How.
Any successful software organisation implements a (or a set of) process model(s) which helps them develop quality software on time, on budget and hence face the market competition or meet customer requirements.
De-facto standard
One such process model, which is becoming the de-facto standard in the software industry today, is the `Rational Unified Process'.
The IBM RUP or RUP, is a software engineering process which provides a disciplined approach to assigning tasks and responsibilities within a software development organisation for the successful development of software.
It unifies proven software best practices in a form that can be adapted for a wide range of projects and organisations. Adoption of the best practices, reduces the risk inherent in developing new software. Further, a customisable process framework, helps software development organisations better communicate with customers and deliver higher-quality software more predictably.
Out-of-the-box roadmaps
RUP is the only process available as a product and is developed and maintained by IBM Rational Software. It comes with several out-of-the-box roadmaps for different types of software projects. RUP is tightly integrated with tools and a modelling language.
The tools support the entire software development life cycle and the modelling language helps in visualising, specifying, constructing and documenting the artefacts of a software-intensive system.
RUP also provides information to help us use Rational tools for software development, but it does not require the Rational tools for effective application to an organisation; integrations with other vendors' offerings are possible.
Cap Gemini Ernst & Young, one of the world's largest providers of consulting, technology and outsourcing services adopted the Rational Unified Process (RUP) as early as in 2001 as the basis for providing consistency in working methods across the CGE&Y's Accelerated Delivery Centers and for use in global client engagements that involve custom software development and reported a productivity increase of 23 per cent.
Avoiding `chaos mode'
At Covansys, a global technology service provider, the Rational Unified Process, or RUP, has helped the development team address risks head on and avoid `chaos mode' with great success.
Over the last two years, Wipro Technologies, a global IT service provider, has included RUP in its menu of process offerings in addition to setting up a Rational Center of Excellence dedicated to developing practitioners in this area.
Many of Wipro's customers were insisting on this process model and it matched well with the global delivery model that Wipro had in place. Wipro currently has around 28 large projects running on the same.
All the above success stories aside, understanding and implementing it is not an easy task. Software engineers who are accustomed to using the traditional software process models take time to appreciate the true benefits of implementing RUP.
Training on the basic model, consultancy on tailoring the model to suit an organisation's requirement and mentoring, are key factors to the successful implementation of RUP.
Awareness training
At Wipro, for instance, organisation wide awareness training sessions were conducted. This was followed by customising the model to suit the needs of Wipro's quality system.
Once customized, RUP was implemented in an incremental phased manner.
Reduced software development time and cost, improved delivery schedules and scalability are some of the business benefits that an organisation derives in implementing RUP. Customers are better able to appreciate the workflow of the project and continuous feedback from customers helps the development team meet the requirements in an effective and efficient way.
No wonder then that, many of the fortune 500 companies and Indian software organisations have adopted RUP holistically.
Annapoorna Gopal
Wipro Technologies
Bangalore
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