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Title: The Rational Unified Process: An Introduction (2nd Edition) by Philippe Kruchten ISBN: 0-201-70710-1 Publisher: Addison-Wesley Pub Co Pub. Date: 14 March, 2000 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $34.99 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.97 (29 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: A fine book despite some reservations
Comment: An excellent book well organized and generally well written. Recommended either to learn about Rational Corporation's Rational Unified Process (RUP) or even just to get a general acquaintance with current ideas about software development methodology.
Mr. Kruchten advocates describing a software product with various summary, abstract views. In this book, he practices what he preaches by giving just the "architectural" view of RUP, whose in-depth treatment would not fit in just 300 pages. There are seventeen chapters divided into two sections. A reader interested only in RUP's distinctive features may skip chapters 1 and 14-17.
Section I comprising chapters 1-6 provides the motivation (software development best practices) and the dominant themes (architecture and use cases) of RUP, describing it also along two main dimensions: the dynamic dimension of phase and iteration and the static dimension of workflow.
Section II dedicates a chapter to each of RUP's nine workflows. There are two final chapters, one with sample plans for iterations in different project phases and one discussing how to implement RUP in a development organization. There are two useful appendices, a dictionary of acronyms, a glossary, and a quite helpful annotated bibliography.
In RUP a workflow is an interrelated set of activities producing a cohesive subset of the artifacts of a software development project. The chapters describing workflows vary somewhat in length and quality, but they all follow the same pattern: (1) start with guiding principles; (2) describe the activities, workers, and artifacts of the workflow; (3) conclude with some comments on tool support (a little marketing for Rational Corporation's tool suite). The best workflow chapters: Project Management, Business Modeling, Test, Configuration and Change Management.
The high recommendation comes not without some reservations.
Architectures are important in RUP, but Chapter 5, "An Architecture-centric Process," garbles this message by describing architectures as mere derivatives of "complete" system descriptions (called "models"): "Architecture is what remains when you cannot take away any more things and still understand the system and explain how it works (p. 82)." Again, " . . . models are complete representations of the system, whereas an architectural view focuses only on what is architecturally significant (p. 89)." Finally, "Architectural views are like slices cut through the various models, illuminating only the important, significant elements . . . (p. 90)."
These explanations fail to recognize that architectures come first. Architectures are constraints that determine subsequent design and construction of the system. They are primary, not derivative, not mere views of models. Fortunately, RUP recognizes the primacy of architecture even if these explanations do not.
These explanations also fail to recognize that an architecture is a complete and distinct model in its own right. They are out of harmony with the book's own (wordy) definition of architecture, which includes "The selection of structural elements and their interfaces by which the system is composed . . . (p. 84)." So when the elements and interfaces have been defined, the architecture is complete, right? It escapes this reader how architectures can be inherently less complete than models (whatever they are), when there is not even any one model that completely describes a system (see p. 81).
The relationship that Chapter 5 describes between architectures and models is very similar to that described in Chapter 10 between the analysis model and the design model. Mr. Kruchten limits the value of retaining the analysis model as a distinct artifact: "Generally, there is one design model . . .. The upper layers of this model describe the application-specific, or more analysis-oriented, aspects . . . In some companies-those in which systems live for decades or there are many variants of the system-a separate analysis model has proved useful (p. 175)."
Generally, companies that plan to stay in business DO expect their systems to live for decades-as do companies that spend millions of dollars using RUP to build them. As for "the extra work required to ensure that the analysis and design models remain consistent (p. 175)," the right tool can make all the difference. Anyone familiar with tools for database design (Erwin, for example) knows that they provide extensive facilities for maintaining separate, consistent analysis (logical) and design (physical) models. The tools offered by Rational Corporation, however, do NOT provide such a facility. Could Mr. Kruchten be tailoring the methodology to fit the limitations of the tool that his sponsor sells?
Compare his attitude toward the analysis model with that of another author in the Addison-Wesley Object Technology Series. Martin Fowler in his UML Distilled says, " . . . it is very important to separate the specification perspective and the implementation perspective (p. 52)." Mr. Fowler uses different terminology, but he is saying essentially that the analysis model ("specification perspective") is valuable as an artifact distinct from the design model ("implementation perspective").
Despite these issues-which might profitably have been discussed at greater length-this fine book admirably fulfills its purpose.
Rating: 4
Summary: A good overview of the entire RUP framework...
Comment: Target Audience
IT professionals who need to learn about the Rational Unified Process (RUP)
Contents
This book is a relatively high-level overview of the entire RUP process.
The book is divided into the following chapters: Software Development Best Practices; The Rational Unified Process; Static Structure: Process Description; Dynamic Structure: Iterative Development; An Architecture-Centric Process; A Use-Case-Driven Process; The Project Management Discipline; The Business Modeling Discipline; The Requirements Discipline; The Analysis and Design Discipline; The Implementation Discipline; The Test Discipline; The Configuration and Change Management Discipline; The Environment Discipline; The Deployment Discipline; Typical Iteration Plans; Implementing the Rational Unified Process; Summary of Roles; Summary of Artifacts; Acronyms; Glossary; Bibliography; Index
Review
The Rational Unified Process, or RUP, is a software engineering methodology that attempts to map out and document all parts of a software development project. It's extremely comprehensive, but it's also adaptable to whatever level of effort is appropriate for your situation. This book, The Rational Unified Process - An Introduction, is a good start to begin your understanding of RUP.
First off, let me say this is not an easy read. It's a good book with all the information you need to know to start using RUP, but the information is dense and highly detail oriented. Like most developers, I'm more oriented towards coding and testing. But realistically, you need to know what the system should do before you get to the coding piece. RUP helps to put all that into a formal framework so that the necessary things will get done in the proper order.
While the entire RUP framework might feel overwhelming, the author makes sure to let you know that you can adapt the RUP to meet your situation. If you are adding a function to an existing system, you will be more focused on use cases, development, and deployment processes. The author does a good job in segmenting the information so that you can more easily focus on your needs.
You should also not consider this the end-all volume on RUP that you will ever need. Kruchten doesn't try to detail specific techniques like use cases or UML. You will learn where they fit in to RUP, but you will need additional information on how to implement use cases or UML diagrams. Consider this the volume that allows you to place everything in a mental framework so that you can figure out what you will need to know going forward.
Conclusion
If you are considering or in the process of implementing RUP, this is a book you should be studying. It's not an easy read, but it will give you the overview you need to understand the process and concepts.
Rating: 5
Summary: If you are interested in RUP, this is the place to start.
Comment: The Rational Unified Process (RUP) was originally developed by Rational Software, which was recently purchased by IBM. Therefore, you now see the RUP sometimes referred to as IBM's Web-enabled software engineering process. As this name implies, it is a set of guidelines, some soft and others fairly rigid to the point of being a rule, for the creation of software. Like all useful principles of computer science, the RUP is a dynamic entity, being constantly modified to reflect the changes taking place in software creation. Therefore, if you are already familiar with the RUP and are wondering if you should read this book, the answer is an emphatic yes. If you are unfamiliar with the RUP, the answer is an even more emphatic yes.
The purpose of this book is to provide an introduction to RUP 2003, the latest iteration of the process. Like the previous books on RUP, it is written at a level suitable for managers. There is some necessary technical jargon, but nothing beyond what a software project development manager would be expected to be able to comprehend.
The book opens with a history of the RUP, what it is used for and the overall structure of the RUP. This is followed by a very brief introduction to fundamental concepts such as iterative development, architecture-centric processes and use cases. Necessary for beginners, most of this material can be skipped by those having experience in those areas.
Part II covers the various areas, referred to as disciplines. They are:
* The project management discipline.
* The business-modeling discipline.
* The requirements discipline.
* The analysis and design discipline.
* The implementation discipline.
* The test discipline.
* The configuration and change management discipline.
* The environment discipline.
* The deployment discipline.
While the steps used in the analysis differs from discipline to discipline, the following are common to all:
* Purpose.
* Roles and artifacts.
* Workflow.
* Tool support.
* Summary.
The tool support section is particularly helpful if you are evaluating the RUP for possible use in your organization. IBM/Rational has many tools that can aid you in your efficient use of the RUP. In fact, without software tools to aid you, much of the material in this book would be of theoretical interest only.
Large software projects require an overall organizing process to be imposed on them if there is to be a chance for successful completion. The RUP is currently one of the best such processes and this book will show the fundamentals of the process and how it can work for you.
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Title: The Rational Unified Process Made Easy: A Practitioner's Guide to Rational Unified Process by Per Kroll, Philippe Kruchten ISBN: 0321166094 Publisher: Addison-Wesley Pub Co Pub. Date: 08 April, 2003 List Price(USD): $39.99 |
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Title: Writing Effective Use Cases by Alistair Cockburn ISBN: 0201702258 Publisher: Addison-Wesley Pub Co Pub. Date: 15 January, 2000 List Price(USD): $39.99 |
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Title: UML Distilled: A Brief Guide to the Standard Object Modeling Language, Third Edition by Martin Fowler ISBN: 0321193687 Publisher: Addison-Wesley Pub Co Pub. Date: 19 September, 2003 List Price(USD): $34.99 |
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Title: Building J2EE Applications with the Rational Unified Process by Peter Eeles, Kelli Houston, Wojtek Kozaczynski ISBN: 0201791668 Publisher: Addison-Wesley Pub Co Pub. Date: 20 August, 2002 List Price(USD): $39.99 |
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Title: The Unified Software Development Process by Ivar Jacobson, Grady Booch, James Rumbaugh ISBN: 0201571692 Publisher: Addison-Wesley Pub Co Pub. Date: 04 February, 1999 List Price(USD): $59.99 |
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