KCard : Unified processes
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Unified Processes
The unified process presupposes that predictions can
be made with minimal effort but these can be wrong, so it is necessary to be
able to adapt to change. This (reasonable prediction is possible) is one of
the main differences compared to agile methods. So the unified process
appears to have a more common approach (compared to other disciplines, like
civil engineering for example) to software development. However, it is an error to think the Unified Process
as a linear building process as it is fully meant to be iterative and
incremental. Failing to recognise this leads to misusing the Unified Process
as a waterfall approach which is known to be very risky. The unified process is composed of 12 disciplines
and 6 phases (this is the extended version of the original unified process
which we use). These disciplines are mostly the standard ones found in other
processes. The same is true for the phases. This means that the static structure
of this process is quite similar to others. The big difference (and advantage) is in the dynamic
aspect. Indeed, the unified process is fully iterative and incremental (and
in fact the details of the static structure reflect this). This means that
the design activity for example is done many times during the development in
order to be able to adapt to the potential changes in the requirements (based
on the user's feedback). The unified process has the interesting potential to
be stretched in both directions, either towards Agile approaches, either
towards waterfall approaches. This makes it the most suitable software
development process for most cases. |
Ideas to develop
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