Chapter 5. Inception: We Start to Make Progress

During the Inception phase, ^[1] you figure out what you need to build, who wants it, and whether they're willing to pay for it. In more concrete terms, you create a vision and business case for the project. We have heard that in Inception you go "a mile wide, and an inch deep." You also need to get agreement from all stakeholders about what you will build. Some of the activities you might undertake during inception are:

^[1] RUP divides a project into four phases. If you are unfamiliar with them, see Appendix A for an overview.

• Create a Vision that establishes goals and non-goals.

• Write a first draft of the project's use cases and prioritize them.

• Establish a high-level project schedule.

• Identify risks, and, just as important, figure out how you will address the risks should they occur.

• Establish a development environment (select, install, and configure tools).

During the Inception phase, you do not solve all of the problems that you anticipate. Instead, you want to get a feel for the work ahead by creating a general roadmap. Think about taking a road trip, for example, from Boston, Massachusetts to Vancouver, British Columbia. When you start to plan the trip, you may not need to know the exact route you will travel, but you know the general direction and the places you plan to visit along the way. You might also know how much time you have for the trip. Inception is like this. You want to go broad and not deep. This chapter describes the route we took through our Inception phase.