THE RATIONAL UNIFIED PROCESS

A software development process has four roles: ^[7]

^[7] Grady Booch, Object Solutions ”Managing the Object-Orient d Project . Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley, 1995.

Provide guidance as to the order of a team's activities.
Specify which artifacts should be developed and when they should be developed.
Direct the tasks of individual developers and the team as a whole.
Offer criteria for monitoring and measuring the project's products and activities.

Without a well-defined process, your development team will develop in an ad hoc manner, with success relying on the heroic efforts of a few dedicated individual contributors. This is not a sustainable condition.

By contrast, mature organizations that employ a well-defined process can develop complex systems in a repeatable and predictable way. Not only is that a sustainable business, but it's also one that can improve with each new project, thereby increasing the efficiency and productivity of the organization as a whole.

Such a well-defined process enables and encourages all of the best practices described earlier. When you codify these practices into a process, your development team can build on the collective experience of thousands of successful projects.

The Rational Unified Process, as described in the following chapters, builds on these six commercial best practices to deliver a well-defined process. This is the context for the Rational Unified Process, a software development process focused on ensuring the production of quality systems in a repeatable and predictable fashion.