What Is the Transition Phase?


What is the purpose of the Transition phase? RUP says that "The focus of the Transition Phase is to ensure that software is available for its end users. The Transition Phase can span several iterations, and includes testing the product in preparation for release and making minor adjustments based on user feedback."

It's easy to misunderstand the Transition phase. If you have followed the iterative development practice, your customer has probably already used the software before the Transition phase. If you follow some of the agile practices such as XP, your customer has been working with the product on a regular basis from very early in the project.

We have seen teams worry needlessly about whether they are in the Transition phase or still in the Construction phase. In many cases, especially on small projects, the line between the two phases can be blurry. We believe that the key objective of the Construction phase is to iteratively and incrementally develop a complete product that is ready for transition to its user community. In other words, when you have implemented and tested all of the features as described by the use cases ”or you've scoped features and use cases out of the release ”you are ready to enter the Transition phase. The Transition phase is really about preparing the product and the customer so that the customer can use the product in a production environment.

One question causes much confusion ”is Beta testing part of the Construction or Transition phase?

Philippe Kruchten, the thought leader of the RUP development group , says that by definition, Beta testing is part of the Transition phase. In RUP version 2003, the timing information on the Workflow Detail for Beta testing says that the work generally occurs during the Construction and Transition phases, but in some cases, you might perform Beta testing as early as the Elaboration phase.

Following an ancient tradition, we answer the question with another question: Does it really matter? Depending on which phase Beta testing belongs to, would you plan, code, or test differently? We don't think so, and we don't think it's worth worrying about. It's more important to ensure that you do have Beta tests. Here's a general guideline: If you have implemented all of the use cases and scenarios and only need to fix defects and do minor cleanup, then you are ready to perform Beta testing, regardless of the phase you are currently in.



Software Development for Small Teams. A RUP-Centric Approach
Software Development for Small Teams: A RUP-Centric Approach (The Addison-Wesley Object Technology Series)
ISBN: 0321199502
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2003
Pages: 112

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