--Originally published at Hackerman's house
The Unified Process is a iterative and incremental software development framework, from which a customized process can be defined. The most popular variation is the Rational Unified Process (RUP), there are others like the Open Unified Process (OpenUP).
There are some key characteristics in the Unified Process;
- Iterative and incremental development framework
- Architecture-centric
- Risk focused
- Highest risk factors should be adressed as early as possible
- Use case and UML driven
Each cycle is broken into four different phases, this can have multiple iterations within the phase.
Inception Phase
In this phase you have to establish the goals of the project. The core requirements and features are defined here, as well as the main risks. This phase also includes the initial project plan and early use cases.
Photo by Mike Cohen
Elaboration Phase
The architecture foundation of the system is established. In this part is taken a more detailed analisys and planning. The architecture must consider the most important requirements and risks.
Construction Phase
This is the phase where the software is built, integrated and tested. The user manuals are created and details of the software are ready to be provided to the user.
Photo by Dan Simpson
Transition Phase
Is where the software is deployed to end users, it has a beta testing stage to ensure the software is ready for the user, retroalimentation from the user is really important in this phase.
References
David Olson (2014) Unified Process, recovered from: http://bawiki.com/wiki/concepts/sdlc-process-models/unified-process/