Anyone has any experience with RUP?

T

TheEP

Registered Users (C)
No, this is not Rupnet but rather Rational Unified Process from Rational (now IBM Rational). :D :D :D

I figured, lot of Java/J2EE folks must be doing rounds here so why not to ask them. We are trying to customize RUP for our R & D center in India and would like to talk to anyone who has any prior experience in customizing RUP and what their experience is using it in projects. Any feedback is appreciated..
 
Is this?

Is this the load testing software from Rational?

We used a software from Rational for load testing few years back (in my previous project) and it was very productive.
 
No, this is not a load testing tool.

This is a process framework/methodology being used in executing Enterprise J2EE projects and we are customizing it for our needs.

Anyone has any take on this one?
 
Customize ?

What exactly are you looking to customize in RUP ? Basically it allows you to design and create models for an application that you are about to build, and most standard components that an application can have are already defined in the RUP toolset.

So if you can give an insight into what you are planning to customize within the RUP framework, I may be able to give you some points !
 
Rational Suite

has a lot of products in it. But I think most people use only Rational Rose.

I dont know if you can "customize" the product. You can probably customize the "standards" you guys use for development.

I am a mainframe guy so I have only limited knowledge. All I have done is review some Use cases. But my company folks (client server guys) use it for design. I can find out from them ... gives me a chance to learn too.
 
"The Rational Unified Process, or RUP, is a web-enabled set of software engineering best practices that provide you with guidance to streamline your team's development activities.
RUP invites you to consider producing only what is useful and required as you formulate and update the development plan, and it identifies what these things might be. RUP is a process that addresses the complete software development lifecycle. It focuses on best practices that have evolved on thousands of projects.
"

Now this is what I recommend if you are interested in learning more about RUP.
Get this book "RUP Made Easy — A Practitioner's Guide"
By: Per Kroll and Philippe Kruchten
Addison Wesley Professional
ISBN: 0321166094

And if you have license to any rational product then register for Rational Developer Network..

I have been using Rational Rose EE for over 3 years now and found this network to be very useful.
 
Thanks Guys.. here is what we want to do.

Our shop is basically working on SAP/Peoplesoft and J2EE apps. So far, when we were working on small projects methodology was not an issue. But now we are 35+ since we grew fast last year and project implementation and execution is becoming an issue and it is becoming absolutely necessary to streamline and organize processes. So we started looking at frameworks like CMM and ISO etc and came to conclusion that for our types of projects, we need customized set of processes which are flexible enough to suite our client's needs. During this research we found RUP and just purchased a copy from IBM. What we are trying to do is, using the tools, customize it in such a manner so that we can use it in our projects independent of technology. We are already using RDN etc. but wish someone who is familiar with Indian's working mentality can shed some more light and insight of their own implementation of RUP. RDN is always there but need someone DESI.. :) :) :)
 
Customizing RUP

If you are not tying down your RUP implementation to any product offered by IBM (Rationale) the I guess you can customize the framework to best suit your needs. RUP afterall is a set of recommendations and artifacts to effectively manage your project lifecycle. I don't believe any of those artifacts are strictly mandated for implementation. It is flexible enough to let you pick what you want "judiciously."
In our company, we are evolving a framework based on RUP and another popular methodology to encompass business and IT architecture and implementation. From what I have learnt, these frameworks are designated frameworks for a reason -- these are not strict code of conducts to be followed religiously. Rather, a loosely constrained set of best practices. So feel free to knock yourself out!!
 
EP

Well, see, any framework or methodology becomes useless with the rigidity offered by a particular toolset. I would recommend you guys to go for an amalgamation of off-the-shelf software for various aspects of the lifecycle. However, be sure to borrow the framework's recommendations and tailor it to your need.

I presume that not all of your 35+ people are working on the same project. Depending on your resource allocation, you can get by with a inexpensive set of software. As for tracking artifacts, you can use something like Sharepoint. From a Desi perspective, you can get by with a RUP book, Excel and Word application :D
 
RUP is a great methodology for a large organization. We have tried to implement/customize RUP in our previous project. We even had undergone training in RUP. This is my experience:

With any software methodologies, you would tend to concentrate more on the documentation and the process rather than thinking - is it really necessary or how is it useful for the project. This can increase the project's execution time.

That being said, there are some good things about the Software methodology too. For example, having use-cases helps you in getting a clear idea of the requirements and the scope and the boundary of the project. I think the best thing to do is to build a prototype (basically in VB and Access) and show it to the customers, get their feedback and then iterate through the whole process again - changing the use cases, the requirements etc. A lot of importance should be given to how the software is designed and coded. Following patterns like Facade, model-view etc. would make it easy to add more features later. Also a lot of care should be given in deciding if you want to go for inheritance or interface because it can bite you later.

Finally, change management and configuration management should not be forgotten too.
 
Thanks guys..

Sai, DCP, WMG, Frantic, PGC et .al.. thanks for the insight. I think there are some useful notes I received from this message. Will look at Sharepoint and see how we can use. We are basically Unix shop with Linux desktops so this could be a problem. Any openSource software available as an option to Sharepoint?

Will post her how to customization goes. Currently I am in process of generating the first RUP website for our next J2EE project.. but so far what I see is pretty cool :D :D :D
 
Desi Perspective

I work for one of the big 5 and am regularly leading teams where we have a distributed delivery approach - some development happening in India and design/ testing/ bug fixes happening here in the US, and we also use RUP extensively on all our projects.

My experience from a desi angle is that people offshore will learn anything that you explain to them well. As far as RUP is concerned, it is my experience that a lot of people in India understand this mthodology, and those who dont are quick to learn.

Basically you should define your frameworks and customize the RUP process here, and then conduct a knowledge sharing session and walk the offshore team through these processes. For the first few weeks you may have to baby sit the people to ensure adherence to the process, but after that things will become pretty automatic (like using requirments management tools, creating appropriate documentation, updating rose models etc.).

As others have pointed out in this forum, you are free to customize RUP to serve your purpose. As long as you can teach this modified methodology to people offshore, you should not have any problems....

Just my 2 cents ! All the best !
 
Re: Thanks guys..

Well, if you want to get a little creative, you can use a CVS/RCS, PHP, Perl/Unix scripting to emulate SharePoint. Get some college interns in India to do this for you. Who knows, you may end up marketing it too :)

Originally posted by TheEP
Sai, DCP, WMG, Frantic, PGC et .al.. thanks for the insight. I think there are some useful notes I received from this message. Will look at Sharepoint and see how we can use. We are basically Unix shop with Linux desktops so this could be a problem. Any openSource software available as an option to Sharepoint?

Will post her how to customization goes. Currently I am in process of generating the first RUP website for our next J2EE project.. but so far what I see is pretty cool :D :D :D
Click to expand...
 
Thanks DelhiCP..

Your message gives me very good perspective looking at this whole process also I feel now that we are on right track. Any more thoughts are welcome..

Thanks again..
 
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