This is a description of the underlying model, sometimes called a meta-model, of the Rational Unified Process (RUP). For an introduction to the basic concepts of the RUP, see the Overview.

Three diagrams are presented to make it easier to understand how the various elements of the process are related. The first diagram describes a high-level view of the RUP, with process elements such as disciplines, workflow details, and how they are related with roles, activities, and artifacts. The second diagram presents a more detailed view of the process. It describes process elements, such as roles, their activities, artifacts (with related information), and their interrelationships. The third diagram shows some miscellaneous information that can be viewed as attributes of the RUP as a whole.

Topics

High-level view of the RUP To top of page

  • A discipline shows all activities you might go through to produce a particular set of artifacts. These disciplines are described at an overview level—a summary of all roles, activities, and artifacts that are involved. At a more detailed level, we show how roles collaborate to use and produce artifacts. The steps at this detailed level are called workflow details.
  • Each discipline has an introduction.
  • To be able to understand a discipline, there are certain concepts you need to understand.
  • Each discipline has an activity overview.
  • Each discipline has an artifact overview.
  • Each discipline has one diagram showing the workflow of the disicpline, expressed in terms of workflow details. The primary purpose of a workflow detail is to describe how activities are performed in reality. Normally, several activities are performed together. Workflow details are groupings of activities that are done together, presented with input and resulting artifacts. The workflow details are not necessarily performed in sequence and you may alternate between them during an iteration.

Detailed view of the RUP To top of page

  • A role is a grouping mechanism that defines a set of responsibilities in terms of activities that this role can perform. A role may be performed by an individual or a set of individuals working together as a team. An individual may also assume multiple roles. Sometimes a role may relate directly to an individual's job title, but it does not have to.
  • An activity is a unit of work a role may be asked to perform. An activity is described by it's steps and input and output artifacts.
  • Artifacts are the modeling constructs and documents that activities evolve, maintain or use as input. An artifact can be any of the following:
  • A document, such as Business Case or Software Architecture Document
  • A model, such as the Use-Case Model or the Design Model
  • A model element, that is, an element within a model such as a class or a subsystem.
  • The artifacts have checkpoints associated with them that are used when performing review activities.
  • Models and model elements have reports associated with them. A report extracts information about models and model elements from a tool. A report presents an artifact or a set of artifacts.
  • There are a number of ready-to-use templates that present documents and artifacts. The RUP provides templates to use with Microsoft® Word®, Adobe® FrameMaker®, and Microsoft® Project®.
  • Most activities in the RUP are supported by software-engineering tools. For many activities, there are one or several tool mentors that describes how to use the tools in the Rational tool suite

Miscellaneous To top of page

There are some additional items in the RUP.

  • An Introduction Manual that introduces the RUP and gives an overview of all concepts.
  • A glossary of all terms used in the RUP.
  • References to external sources.
  • White Papers detail various topics related to the RUP.
  • Examples of artifacts are provided through sample projects.
  • The Process Engineer Toolkit provides supporting guidelines for configuring a process.



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Rational Unified Process