What are Six Best Practices in Rational Unified Process?

The IBM Rational Unified Process is a means of commercial deployment of the approaches and practices which have been proven for the development of the software systems and applications. It is based up on the following six best practices:

1. Iterative development of the software systems and applications
2. Management of the requirements
3. Use of architecture based up on the components.
4. Visual modeling of the software system
5. Verification of the software system.
6. Controlling the changes to the software system or application.

The above mentioned practices are called the best practices not because their value can be precisely quantified but because they are quite common in the software industry by most of the organizations which are successful and reputable.

In the rational unified process each and every member of the team gets templates, guidelines as well as the tools which are found necessary for the whole of the team in order to reap the full advantage.

Basic Practices In Rational Unified Process in Detail

Iterative development of the software systems or applications:  

- Software systems and applications are quite sophisticated and therefore they make it impossible to define the problem first in sequence.

- By sequence we mean, first defining the whole problem, designing a solution of the problem, building the software system or application and then finally testing the software system. 

- In order to deal with such software systems and applications there is a requirement of an iterative approach so that an increase in the understanding of the problem can be made in a series of successive refinements. 

- This also helps in developing an effective solution in increments done over multiple iterations.

Management of the Requirements: 

The rational unified process gives a description:

- On how the elicitation, organization and documentation of the constraints as well as the functionality is to be done, 

- how the trade-offs and decisions have to be tracked and documented and 

- how the business requirements are to be captured and communicated.

Use of architecture based up on the components: 

- The focus of the development process is on the base-lining and early development of an architecture that is robust and executable as well. 

- It gives a description of how a resilient architecture can be built with more flexibility that can accommodate the changes easily, can be easily understood and effectively promotes the reuse of the existing software artifacts. 

- The rational unified process provides a great support to the component based development. 

- By components we mean, the sub systems and non – trivial elements for a clear function.

Visual modeling of the software system: 

- The rational unified shows you exactly how a software system or application can be visually modeled and can be used for capturing the behavior and structure of its architectural components. 

- This further enables you to hide the details and develop the code with the help of the graphical building blocks. 

- With such visual abstractions, communication can be established between the different aspects of the software system or application.

Verification of the software system: 

- Poor reliability dramatically cuts down the chances of a software system or application from being accepted.

- Therefore it is important to review the quality concerning the factors namely functionality, reliability, system performance and application performance etc.

Controlling the changes to the software system or application: 

- The management and ability to track the changes are critical to the success of any software system or application. 

- However, the rational unified process helps you to cope with these issues also.