Transition Phase - One of the phase of Rational Unified Process

There are 4 phases which together constitute the rational unified process namely:

1. Inception phase
2. Elaboration phase
3. Construction phase
4. Transition phase

The above mentioned phases are responsible for the representation of the rational unified process at the highest level in the way which is similar to waterfall model representation but the difference is that the key for the rational unified process lies in the development iterations which form an integral part of all the phases of the rational unified process. 

Also, each of the four phases of the rational unified process are characterized by two things namely the objective and the milestone. The objective drives the whole phase from the beginning to the end and the milestone concludes the end of it. 

The phase is said to be complete with successful result if and only if it passes the milestone since this only marks the conclusion of the phase. All of the phases of the rational unified process are visualized in the form of a chart called the RUP hump chart which is drawn over the course of the whole process. 

In this article we shall discuss exclusively about the fourth phase of the rational unified process i.e., the transition phase. 

Objective of Transition Phase

- The primary objective with which the transition phase is driven is “to transit the software system or application” from the phase of development in to the actual phase of production. 

- This also extends the availability of the software system or application to the end user in such a form that it is understandable by the end user. 

- This phase involves the below mentioned activities:

1. Training the end users
2. Training the maintainers as well.
3. Carrying out beta testing on the software system or application for validating it against the expectations of the end users.
4. Checking the software product against the quality level that was set in the inception phase.

- When all the objectives are said to be accomplished, the software system or application is said to reach the ‘product release milestone’ and the development cycle is said to be concluded.

- This fourth phase of the rational unified process does the fine tuning of the software product.

- It is based on the feedback from the user and the software product is made ready for the release. 

- The transition phase is basically focused on the availability of the software system or application to the end users.

- The transition phase often involves the spanning of the several iterations. 

- The software product is tested in order to prepare it for the release and also minor adjustments are made as per the feedback provided by the end users. 

- When this point in the software development life cycle is reached, it is required that the feedback from the end user should be majorly focused up on the following issues:

1. Fine tuning of the software system or the application.
2. Configuration of the product
3. Installation issues
4. Usability issues

- By this time, almost all the major issues of the product structure should have been worked out in the earlier phases of the software development life cycle. 

- The product release milestone can be defined as a point where it is decided that all the objectives of the project have been met and whether or not another development cycle is required. 

- The basic and majority of the evaluation as well as the refinement of the software system or application is done based up on the feedback from the user.

- This can be considered to be a kind of fine tuning exercise for the software system since the system has already met the requirements of the users as it is driven by the use cases. 

- At the end, a final evaluation is done and accordingly the project is released to the public or is considered for another development cycle. 

Unified process as a heavy defined process VS an Agile unified process approach

Unified process is another process in the list of the iterative and incremental processes apart from the agile processes. There are so many refinements and variations of the unified process as mentioned below:

1. RUP or Rational Unified Process: A refinement of the Unified process developed by the IBM/rational software.
2. RUP- SE or Rational Unified Process - System Engineering: This is a version of the rational unified process developed by the rational software for catering to the needs of the system engineering.
3. AUP or Agile unified process: It is a lightweight variation that was developed by Scott W. Ambler.
4. OpenUP or Open unified process: It is the eclipse process frame work software development process.
5. BUP or Basic unified process: It is also a lightweight variation but developed by the IBM. It is kind of a precursor to Open UP.
6. EssUP or Essential unified process: Another light weight variation developed by the Ivar Jacobson.
7. EUP or enterprise unified process: It is an extension of the RUP or the rational unified process.
8. OUM or oracle unified method: A development and implementation process developed by the oracle.

So you see that the agile unified process is a refinement of the unified process! So what is the difference between the two? This is what we have discussed in the article. Actually there is a subtle difference between the two in the way that they categorize the project work flows and the disciplines. 

Disciplines addressed by RUP

There are nine disciplines that are addressed by the rational unified process as mentioned below:

1. Business modelling
2. Requirements
3. Analysis and design
4. Implementation
5. Test
6. Deployment
7. Configuration and change management
8. Environment
9. Project management

9 disciplines is a big count! The agile refinements of the unified process simplify the whole rational unified process further and reduce the above mentioned nine disciplines to a lesser count making the whole development process simple and short. 

Points of Comparison between RUP and AUP

- Unified process though being quite an advance process for developing the software but it provides quite a heavy approach. On the other hand the agile unified processes are quite light. 

- These processes provide a way of streamlining the rational unified process by minimizing the number of the expected artifacts and simplify the whole work flow. 

- The UP and the AUP also vary in their specifications of what happens after the completion of the transition phase.

- In the agile unified processes, the transition phase is followed by a production phase rather than by a new inception phase in the case of the unified process.

- There are countless numbers of the unified process refinements and variations. 

- There are 4 phases in a unified process namely:

1. Inception phase
2. Elaboration phase
3. Construction
4. Transition

In addition to the above 4 mentioned phases, the agile unified processes go through the two additional phases namely: 
    1. The retirement phase and
    2. The Production phase.

The below mentioned are the philosophies up on which the agile processes are based:

1. The development knows what is being done.
2. Simplicity is maintained.
3. The whole process confirms to the principles and values of the agile software.
4. Focus is on high value activities.
5. It is tool independent.

The agile unified process makes use of two types of iterations namely:

1. Development release iteration: deployment to the quality assurance and
2. Production release iteration: deployment to the production area.

Phase 4 of Unified Process Life cycle - Transition

Unified process is one of the best development processes we have of the iterative and incremental form. The whole unified process is completed in four phases which have been mentioned below:

1. Inception phase
2. Elaboration phase
3. Construction phase and lastly
4. Transition phase

This whole article is all about the last phase i.e., the transition phase. In this whole article we are going to discuss about the last phase. 

What is a Transition Phase?

- The final phase of the unified process i.e., the transition phase involves the deployment of the system for targeting the customers.

- The feedback that is collected on the account of the previous releases helps in further refining or improving the software system or application. 

- It can also be decided over the further functionality that have to be added to the software system or application under development to make it much better. 

- Transition phase like all of the preceding three phases is composed of several timed iterations that are time boxed. 

- Apart from just targeting the users, the transition phase also involves user training and the system conversions. 

- The transition phase has been named so because it is in this phase that the transition of the whole system from development to production takes place and software is made available to the users. 

- Along with the end users in some cases the maintainers might also be treated. 

- This phase also witnesses the beta testing of the software system or application so that it is validated against the expectations of the end users. 

- A certain quality level is set in the phase i.e., in the inception phase which is tested in against by the quality of the software system or application in the transition phase. 

- The point at which all the objectives are met is called the “product release milestone”. 

- At this point the product is declared finished and the development is also declared to be complete. 

- The unified process is quite a robust software process that is meant for addressing the development as well as the production needs of the users and the customers. 

- We need a software development process that serves the scope of our real world quite well and provides us with a balanced perspective of the alternative programming methodologies available from all around the field. 

- In this transition phase, if there are any legacy systems that you are going to replace, then your whole software system or application is operated in parallel with those legacy systems. 

- This leads to the conversion of the legacy data bases and the systems in to an improved one that supports your new software system or application. 

Goals of transition Phase

The transition phase has got three main goals as mentioned below:

1.Evolving the final product baseline or the production base line of the software system or the application.

2.Training the materials for the software system or application.

3.Creation of the documentation which is inclusive of all the user manuals, operations documentation and the support documentation.

Issues faced during Transition Phase

- This phase is concluded with the product release milestone. 

- Achieving this milestone is not so easy since you have to satisfy all the expectations of the end users and also justify the actual expenditures against the planned expenditure. 

- Issues such as finishing the features that were postponed usually arise after the product has been transited to the end users or customers. 

- The production baseline ought to be mature enough to be deployed in the end user domain. 

- The operational data bases are also converted and the final product is released for marketing, distribution and sales team.