Mistake 3: Choosing the Wrong Project for Your First Experience with the RUP

Although the RUP is truly an excellent process, it is a major transition for a project team to undertake, particularly for teams used to Waterfall-oriented methods. The project selected for a team's first use of the RUP is of key importance. Most practitioners who are experienced with the RUP recommend that you select a noncritical project first; however, in today's business world, few projects can be described as noncritical. If you're a contractor whose primary business is developing outsourced projects, I recommend that you identify an internal project, along with a core team, for a first-time RUP implementation. The project should be one in which failure or schedule delays will not harm the company's reputation. On the other hand, it still needs to be a project with enough significance to provide a sense of accomplishment for the team involved. Finally, the team members for such a project should be those who are interested in and motivated to try something new. The team will face enough challenges without having to deal with team members who are not motivated.

It is also important to note that the project team is not the only group affected by the move to the RUP. Switching to the RUP involves a cultural change for the customer and stakeholders as well. In particular, the customer and stakeholders must embrace the notion of working with project team members for requirements elicitation. They must be willing to participate in reviews and assessments of iterations and to have "hands-on" time with the product before it is complete. In addition, they must embrace the notion of adaptive planning versus predictive models commonly used in Waterfall-based projects. Finally, the customer must understand that firm, fixed costs, schedules, and functionality cannot be realistically determined before the project begins. They must be willing to trade off completeness and schedule. Iterative projects provide the flexibility to deliver to a fixed date, but some functionality may need to be deferred. If a multitiered contract model is employed (as described in Chapter 3, "Getting Started: Request for Proposals (RFPs), Proposals, and Contracts"), the customer must be willing to delay firm commitments for cost and schedule until near or at the end of the Elaboration phase.