Conclusion

The reasons for adopting the RUP product and supporting tools should be to obtain business benefits measured in improved project results in terms of higher quality systems, lower cost, or shorter time-to-market . Time spent on process improvement easily becomes overhead unless these objectives are clear in everyone's mind.

When adopting the RUP in a project, you walk through five basic steps: Assess whether you should adopt all or only some parts of RUP; plan the implementation; configure and customize the RUP, the tool environment, and the training material; execute the project; and evaluate the results of your RUP introduction.

Implementing the RUP for a larger organization is a complex task, and is best driven as a program consisting of three types of projects: process and tool enhancement projects (PTEPs), pilot projects, and normal software development projects. The amount of organizational change, your willingness for risk exposure, and the amount of customization of the RUP and supporting tools you plan to make greatly impact your RUP implementation program.

To accomplish major improvement in project results, you need to automate the process. Iterative development requires, among other factors, support for Configuration and Change Management, automated testing, and requirements management to be completed in a cost-effective manner. Other aspects of the RUP require other types of automation. Failure to consider automation as a part of a process improvement effort will likely lead to disappointing results.

Improving the process and tools should be an ongoing effort, giving you the capacity to tune your process continuously to fit your evolving needs.