The Unified Process Inception Phase : Best Practices for Implementing the UP (Paperback)

by Scott W. Ambler (Author) "The Construction phase is where the detailed design for your application is developed as well as the corresponding source code..." (more)
Key Phrases: enhanced lifecycle, enterprise requirements model, workflow efforts, Karl Wiegers, Larry Constantine, Scott Ambler (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
The Unified Process methodology for object- oriented component-based development has taken the information technology community by storm. This third volume in a four-book series addresses the Inception Phase, in which developers focus on the initial requirements for a system, determining its scope, and organizing the project. These articles from Software Development magazine include contributions from Peter Coad, Larry Constantine, Karl Wiegers, and others.

About the Author
Scott W. Ambler started developing software in the early 80s, and has worked in object-oriented development for the past ten years in an array of roles. He is presently engaged as a software process mentor with AmbySoft Inc., a contributing editor

Product Details

• Paperback: 308 pages
• Publisher: CMP Books (December 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1929629109
• ISBN-13: 978-1929629107
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,229,603 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fill in the blanks of the Inception Phase, May 8, 2001

By	Scott W. Ambler "Author, Agile Database Techn... (Toronto, Canada) - See all my reviews

This book is a collection of articles originally published in Software Development magazine, the purpose of which is to fill in some of the holes left in the Inception Phase of the Unified Process.

For developers I show how the models of the Unified Modeling Language *UML) fit together, Luke Hohmann describes how to apply patterns effectively, Nancy Wilkinson shows how to use Class Responsibility Collaborator (CRC) cards (from eXtreme Programming(XP)), Ellen Gottesdiener describes how to capture business rules, several people write about developing international software, and several others write about testing techniques applicable to the early parts of the project life cycle.

For project managers Karl Wiegers describes risk management, Dave Thomas shares his experiences with web-time software development, Steve McConnell shows how to manage outsourced projects, Neil Whitten describes how to find a good vendor (to outsource to), Warren Keuffel and Karl Wiegers provide significant insight into metrics, and Larry Constantine describes how to manage large projects. There is also significant advice for selecting tools presented by several authors, just in case you wanted to do business with more than one tool vendor (if you get my drift).

In short, the book presents a collection of best practices applicable to the Inception Phase. Best practices that come from multiple sources, respected members of the software development community, and not just from a single tool vendor. All of these articles were picked because they describe either topics not covered by the current version of the RUP, are covered minimally by the RUP, or provide an alternate view for how to go about it.

Furthermore, these best practices are presented within the scope of an enhanced lifecycle for the Unified Process, one that could arguably be called the Enterprise Unified Process (EUP) because it includes a Production phase, an operations & support workflow, and an infrastructure management workflow (for cross-project issues such as reuse, risk management, training and education, ...). Most enterprises have more than one project in development, in fact they often have many in development and many more in project which they need to operate and support. Therefore we need a version of the Unified Process that reflects that reality, and this book series does just that.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The RUP would be RIP without this book series, May 18, 2001

By	Rob Williams (NYC) - See all my reviews

This book presents some very interesting articles. Sure, they sometimes go beyond the original scope of the RUP but that's exactly why you need to read these books. We're implementing the RUP in my company and these books helped us to fill in the missing techniques. The new workflows, Infrastructure Management and Operations & Support, are right on the money. We've benefitted immensely from the concept of Infrastructure Management because it describes how to attain higher levels of reuse within our department, how to develop a shared architecture and enterprise requirements model that all projects can benefit from, and how to manage resources across multiple projects. The RUP only focuses on the development of a single project, which is okay, but it isn't what my company needed. Without Infrastructure Management the RUP is virtually useless to us. Too bad Ambler and Constantine don't work for Rational, because if they did the RUP might actually be usable.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best Practices ... I wish there were more, May 10, 2001

By A Customer

Once again Scott Ambler has managed to bring together a well organized, detailed, view of a very complex topic. The Inception phase, has become a well worn reference book on my desk ( right nexdt to Scott's other Unified Process Books ).

I highly recommend this to anyone looking for insight into proven approached to problem solving. I'm looking forward to the next book in the series.