Purpose and Goals of the Inception Phase

Simply stated, the goal of the Inception phase on a project is to achieve the first major milestone on the project, referred to in the RUP as the Lifecycle Objectives Milestone. What does this mean? The following must be true at the conclusion of the Inception phase:

• The system's key requirements have been identified. Not all the system requirements might be completely defined, but the most important functionality has been specified formally. Furthermore, the customer, end users, and contractors have demonstrated to each other that the understanding of these requirements across the three parties is congruent.

• A candidate architecture for the system has been identified.

• All significant risks have been identified, and plans for managing and dealing with the risks have been prepared.

• All parties agree on the estimates for cost and schedule, along with the project's overall scope.

As part of accomplishing the purpose and goals of this phase of the project, the team produces a number of important artifacts.