RUP Project Life Cycle

Inception Phase

In this phase the business case which includes business context, success factors (expected revenue, market recognition, etc), and financial forecast is established. To complement the business case, a basic use case model, project plan, initial risk assessment and project description (the core project requirements, constraints and key features) are generated.

After these are completed, the project is checked against the following criteria:
  • Stakeholder concurrence on scope definition and cost/schedule estimates.
  • Requirements understanding as evidenced by the fidelity of the primary use cases.
  • Credibility of the cost/schedule estimates, priorities, risks, and development process.
  • Depth and breadth of any architectural prototype that was developed.
  • Actual expenditures versus planned expenditures.
If the project does not pass this milestone, called the Lifecycle Objective Milestone, it can either be cancelled or it can repeat this phase after being redesigned to better meet the criteria.
 

Elaboration Phase

The elaboration phase is where the project starts to take shape. In this phase the problem domain analysis is made and the architecture of the project gets its basic form.
This phase must pass the Lifecycle Architecture Milestone by meeting the following criteria:

  • A use-case model in which the use-cases and the actors have been identified and most of the use-case descriptions are developed. The use-case model should be 80% complete.
  • A description of the software architecture in a software system development process.
  • An executable architecture that realizes architecturally significant use cases.
  • Business case and risk list which are revised.
  • A development plan for the overall project.
  • Prototypes that demonstratively mitigate each identified technical risk.
 

Construction Phase

In this phase, the main focus goes to the development of components and other features of the system being designed. This is the phase when the bulk of the coding takes place. In larger projects, several construction iterations may be developed in an effort to divide the use cases into manageable segments that produce demonstrable prototypes.

This phase produces the first external release of the software. Its conclusion is marked by the Initial Operational Capability Milestone
 

Transition Phase

In the transition phase, the product has moved from the development organization to the end user. The activities of this phase include training of the end users and maintainers and beta testing of the system to validate it against the end users' expectations. The product is also checked against the quality level set in the Inception phase. If it does not meet this level, or the standards of the end users, the entire cycle in this phase begins again.

If all objectives are met, the Product Release Milestone is reached and the development cycle ends.